Massachusetts and the Nation were given the disastrous news that Aburn Police Officer, Ronald Tarentino, 42, husband and father of three children, his oldest son currently serving in the military; was killed in during a traffic stop.

Jorge Zambrano, 35, of Worcester, Massachusetts shot and killed Officer Tarentino for reasons still unknown to investigators. Around 12:30 AM on Sunday, a justified stop of Zambrano was underway – he was operating an Infiniti QX4 with a license plate that was registered to a Nissan Maxima. Last week, Zambrano was stopped for the very same violation, by Massachusetts State Police and was charged with: attaching plates, operating with a revoked license, and operating an unregistered motor vehicle.

On his final stop, Zambrano reacted by killing Officer Tarentino. Following the shooting, Zambrano immediately fled the scene in his SUV. Exasperating his deadly and thoughtless actions on Sunday by setting off an eighteen-hour manhunt, which ended in the injury of another law enforcement officer and Zambrano’s death.

As Zambrano ran, citizens and representatives from multiple police departments lined the street to pay respect along the route of a motorcade that transferred the body of Officer Tarentino from the medical examiner’s officer and to a funeral home in Leicester. Others laid bouquets of flowers and miniature American flags at a memorial outside of the Auburn Police Department, where the flag was lowered to half-mast in honor of Police Officer Ronald Tarentino.

 

Auburn Officer Ronald Tarentino Jr. body’s escorted to Leicester – Video courtesy of MassLive

Meanwhile, throughout Auburn and the surrounding area, multiple law enforcement agencies converged as a joint investigation was launched that involved several regional police departments, Massachusetts State Police, the Worcester County District Attorney’s office, the FBI, and the Secret Service. Together they extended a dragnet to close on Zambrano. For eighteen hours, Zambrano eluded authorities until his SUV was identified behind a duplex apartment building. There, Zambrano found himself cornered, and would make his final mistake; cowering in the second-floor bedroom closet of the duplex, at 33 Watch Street in Oxford.