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Galt Officer's Cousin One Of First To Respond To His Shooting

GALT (CBS13) - A police officer in the small community of Galt was shot and killed in the line of duty on Tuesday, and the officer's cousin was one of the first to rush to his side.

"Knowing that I first heard it was an officer down and knowing my cousin, something in me told me it was him," Jarrett Tonn said.

Jarrett Tonn, an undercover detective with Galt PD, was one of the first officers to respond to the shooting. It turned out to be his cousin, Officer Kevin Tonn, his former roommate and someone he joined the Junior Explorer program with at Roseville PD with when they were just kids.

"I try to put that out of my mind as best as possible, actually," Tonn said.

Jarrett noticed that Kevin was severely wounded, shot it the face after confronting a burglary suspect Tuesday morning at about 11:30.

"We tried to do first aid on him," Jarrett said.

They did what they could before paramedics arrived, but it didn't look good.

"Just thinking about hoping he's OK," he said.

Jarrett focused on not getting overwhelmed by seeing a family member on the ground dying. He says he kept his wits about him and focused on the job at hand, securing the scene and looking for any other possible witnesses or suspects.

"We knew at the time there was an armed suspect and (I was) trying to focus on that and not think about the personal relationship," he said.

Within hours his cousin was pronounced dead at the Kaiser hospital in south Sacramento.

Jarrett says for him and his family, their faith will get them through this.

"I'm not angry about it," he said. "I'm sad about it. I'm not angry about it. We don't weep as those who have no hope. It's hard to live that day to day sometimes, but this is a good reminder of that."

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