There is heartbreak on the Central Coast, as a veteran police detective has been identified as the officer who died while serving a search warrant on a burglary suspect.
Six San Luis Police officers were trying to serve a search warrant at an apartment on Camellia Court Monday night on a suspected commercial burglary suspect.
Officers knocked on the door, identified themselves multiple times, and when there was no response, broke into the unit. Acting Police Chief Brian Amoroso says officers were ambushed. They returned fire, but two of them were hit.
Detective Luca Benedetti was fatally wounded. Detective Steve Orozco was also wounded, but was treated and released at a hospital.
Amoroso says the suspected gunman, Edward Zamora Giron, was wounded by officers, but then killed himself. Investigators say they found evidence from the commercial burglaries in the apartment.
Benedetti had been a police officer for 12 years, including eight with the San Luis Obispo Department. He’s survived by his wife and two young children.
