Police officer killed by gunman in La.

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CHARENTON, La., Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A police officer was killed and two deputies critically wounded when they were shot by a gunman as they responded to a house fire in Louisiana, police said.

A Louisiana State Police spokesman, Stephen Hammons, said a man began firing at the three officers when they arrived at the fire Saturday in Charenton, about 60 miles west of New Orleans, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported. The shots killed an officer from the Chitimacha Indian Reservation in Charenton and wounded two St. Mary Parish sheriff's deputies.

A suspect was arrested, Hammons said.

In late December, a man set his house on fire in the town of Webster, N.Y., near Rochester, and shot at firefighters as they arrived, killing two of them. William Speight, who had been convicted years before of killing his grandmother, then took his own life.

Hammons said the two injured officers were in critical condition, one in a New Orleans hospital and the other in Lafayette.