Ohio region reels from series of police deaths

CINCINNATI (AP) — Authorities in the Cincinnati region are reeling after the deaths of five police officers in less than two months.

Funeral services and a procession to the cemetery were set Friday for the latest to die. Twenty-year Clermont County sheriff’s deputy Bill Brewer was gunned down last weekend while responding to a suspected suicide attempt by a man barricaded inside an apartment. Another officer was wounded in the leg before a man was taken into custody at the apartment complex.

The Hamilton County coroner says she has been wearing a black mourning band over her badge since Dec. 17, when the string of deaths began.

Lakshmi Sammarco (lak-SCHMEE’ suh-MAHR’-coh) has been the Cincinnati-based coroner since 2012. She can’t think of any comparable period for so many police deaths so close together.