'Unacceptable' Delay Blasted After Shooting of Rookie Cop

"We suffered a devastating loss yesterday with the death of Officer Tara O'Sullivan, who was killed in the line of duty," Sacramento police academy director Lt. Steve Oliveira told 56 recruits at an emotional graduation ceremony Thursday night. O'Sullivan, who graduated from the academy in December and was still paired with a training officer, was fatally shot Wednesday night while helping a woman gather her things from a home after a domestic disturbance, NBC reports. Police say alleged gunman Adel Sambrano Ramos fired on officers trying to reach the wounded 26-year-old; it took more than 45 minutes to reach her with an armored vehicle and get her to a hospital.

Ramos, a 45-year-old with a history of domestic violence, was arrested after an hours-long standoff and has been charged with offenses including murder. Stephen Nasta, a former NYPD inspector and a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, tells CBS that the delay in reaching O'Sullivan was "unacceptable." He says officers should have commandeered another heavy vehicle if no armored car was available, or tried diversionary tactics like breaking windows at the home Ramos was holed up in. The California Association Highway Patrol Credit Union has created a memorial fund for the fallen officer, the Sacramento Bee reports. (More Sacramento stories.)