The Latest: Sheriff says officer’s killer is in US illegally

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Latest on the death of a California police officer and search for the killer (all times local):

11:25 a.m.

A California sheriff says the suspect in the shooting death of a police officer is in United States illegally.

Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson told reporters Thursday that authorities have identified a suspect but didn’t name him. Authorities are still searching for the attacker.

Christianson’s agency is leading the investigation into the slaying of Cpl. Ronil Singh of the small-town Newman Police Department.

The sheriff says Singh pulled over the attacker as part of a DUI investigation Wednesday and that the officer fired back to try to defend himself.

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12 a.m.

Authorities are hunting the man suspected of killing a policeman who stopped his truck in a small California town.

Thirty-three-year-old Ronil Singh was shot Wednesday after stopping a pickup truck without a license plate in Newman, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.

The truck was later found but the gunman is at large.

Authorities say surveillance photos taken at a convenience store shortly before the attack show the suspect, a heavy man with short dark hair wearing a chain necklace, dark T-shirt and jacket.

The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department says police agencies throughout California and out of state have been alerted.

Singh was a native of Fiji who joined the Newman police force in 2011. He is survived by a wife and an infant son.