Officer Down

Deputy Jeffrey Mitchell, 39, a 9 year veteran of the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department, was killed in the line of duty this morning.

Deputy Mitchell, who patrolled the rural area southeast of Sacramento, advised dispatch he was initiating a traffic stop on a white Chevy van with no plates near the intersection of Dillard and Meiss Road shortly before 3:30 am. When he did not respond to subsequent radio calls from dispatch, additional deputies were sent to the scene and found Deputy Mitchell barely alive suffering a gunshot wound to the head. He died at UC Davis Medical Center at 4:45 a.m.

He is survived by his wife, Crystal and a 6 year old son.

For more, see here and here for more on this still breaking tragedy.