NORTH CODORUS, Pa. (AP) — Police returning to a home in the rolling farmland of southern Pennsylvania in search of a suspected stalker who may have been trespassing encountered a barrage of gunfire that left three of them dead and two more wounded.

All three slain officers and a fourth who remains hospitalized worked for the Northern York County Regional Police Department, which called Wednesday a “dark and heartbreaking day.”

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Neighboring departments stepped in Thursday to help shoulder the workload as agency personnel grieved. More details were expected to emerge at an afternoon news conference.

The violence erupted Wednesday afternoon as officers sought 24-year-old Matthew James Ruth, who they believed had been at the home the night before, carrying an AK-47 an

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