By Jason Kotowski
The Bakersfield Californian
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — An alleged marital affair may have sparked a shooting Wednesday night that ended with the suspect shot by a SWAT officer after holing up inside a hotel on Stockdale Highway Thursday morning.
Both suspect Robert Burdge, 36 and the victim are correctional officers, Bakersfield police said. Burdge suffered major injuries after being shot at 8:32 a.m. at the Vagabond Inn at 200 Trask St.
He was flown to Kern Medical Center.
Police say Burdge lay in wait at the home of another correctional officer in the 9800 block of Copa Cabana Court Wednesday evening. The officer arrived home, and Burdge told him he was going to kill him.
The two struggled over Burdge’s gun, and the other officer was shot before retreating inside his house, police said. Burdge fired another shot into the door and fled.
The injured officer called police and was taken to a local hospital as a search began for Burdge.
California Highway Patrol officers spotted Burdge’s vehicle Thursday morning in the area of Interstate 5 and Stockdale Highway. Law enforcement began a search of all businesses in the surrounding area and discovered Burdge had entered the Vagabond Inn and was in the hotel’s lobby.
Police said they established communication with Burdge. A clerk who was with him in the lobby managed to leave, and the last communication police had with the suspect was at 8:20 a.m.
A SWAT officer shot Burdge 12 minutes later.
Burdge told officers they should check on a backpack he’d left in shrubbery at the front of the Best Western hotel just south of the Vagabond. Police, believing the backpack could contain, explosives, said the Bomb Squad rendered the backpack safe.
It contained ammunition and pepper spray.