DETROIT (AP) - An undercover police officer chasing a burglary suspect through the backyard of a suburban Detroit home was shot five times and killed with a gun stolen from the house, authorities said Tuesday.
Larry Nehasil was hit in the head, back, buttocks, thigh and hip Monday evening as he and other officers tried to arrest two men suspected in as many as 50 area burglaries.
Nehasil's bulletproof vest stopped all but the shot to his head, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said.
The 48-year-old Livonia officer was part of a surveillance team tailing the two brothers into Walled Lake, about 22 miles northwest of Detroit.
The brothers were suspected in a string of break-ins in Livonia and surrounding communities, and were pulling off a burglary at the time of Monday's shooting, McCabe said.
One of the brothers was loading a household safe into the car when the officers swept in, cornering the car and driver. David Bowling ran through the garage and out a rear door into the fenced-in backyard with Nehasil in pursuit, McCabe said.
Shots were fired and other officers rushed back to find Nehasil bleeding in the yard. He had been shot with a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun stolen from the Walled Lake home. His cause of death was listed as multiple gunshot wounds.
David Bowling, 44, died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Oakland County medical examiner's office.
He was shot twice with one slug entering an arm and lodging in his chest and the other striking him in the lower chest near his abdomen.
Both brothers have extensive criminal records.