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Girlfriend of suspected cop killer, 3 others arrested

  • Story Highlights
  • Girlfriend accused of providing false information to police
  • Police say gunman killed one officer, wounded three others after traffic stop
  • Gunman killed by police in shootout late Thursday night
  • 2 injured officers treated, released; doctors trying to save third officer's leg
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MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The girlfriend of a man suspected of killing a Miami-Dade County police officer Thursday was one of four people arrested Friday and accused of helping him avoid police for hours before authorities shot him to death.

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Police say Shawn Sherwin Labeet was killed in a shootout with officers.

Police said Renee Ann D'Angelo, 26, hindered the investigation by giving them a false name for the man. She faces charges of being an accessory after the fact, according to jail booking records.

"She purposely misled and delayed our investigation," Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.

Detective Bobby Williams, a Miami-Dade police spokesman, said D'Angelo was the girlfriend of Shawn Sherwin Labeet.

Labeet, 25, died just before midnight Thursday. He was the subject of a daylong manhunt after four police officers were shot with an assault rifle during a traffic stop about 11 a.m. Thursday.

One of the officers was killed, and another was seriously injured. The other two were treated at a hospital and released.

Labeet fled the scene in D'Angelo's car, which was later found with a high-powered rifle underneath, said Commander Linda O'Brien, a Miami-Dade police spokeswoman.

Arrested on Friday with D'Angelo were Alba C. Bello, 47; Lazaro Guardiola, 35; and Alain Gonzalez, 24.

"They helped Shawn Labeet elude us for hours," Williams said.

Police released few details of the alleged actions of Bello, Guardiola and Gonzalez or a timeline of their contacts with Labeet, but O'Brien said they helped Labeet alter his appearance -- providing him with a change of clothes, for example -- and got him transportation.

There was confusion about the suspect's identity after the police shooting, authorities said, because D'Angelo, who was taken into custody at the scene, purposely gave them the wrong name for him. Labeet had stolen the identity of a Jacksonville man and had been using his name and identification, and D'Angelo gave them that name, police said.

The other man contacted authorities in Jacksonville and was determined not to be involved in the incident.

Late Thursday, police confronted Labeet at a home in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and he was killed in an exchange of gunfire, Alvarez said early Friday. Labeet had a firearm and an extra clip, he said.

Police said there was a previous warrant out for his arrest for aggravated assault from a September 2002 incident.

"The community is a lot safer tonight now that he is not on the streets tonight -- at large and able to cause further harm or potentially death to other citizens or law enforcement officers in the community," said Robert Parker, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

On Thursday, police stopped Labeet after they saw him driving erratically while they were on a burglary detail at a housing complex in Cutler Bay, Florida, authorities said. The man got out of the car and opened fire with an assault rifle, Alvarez said. "Without any remorse, Labeet left the officers there to die and fled the scene." Video Watch how authorities wonder if the gunman had a death wish »

Alvarez said the slain officer, Jose Somohano, was 37 years old and is survived by a wife and two young children. He had been with the department since 2003.

A second officer, 31-year-old Jody Wright, remains hospitalized. Her father, Dennis Dalley, said she had undergone surgery Thursday as doctors tried to save her leg. He said he's hopeful they will do so, but that will require many more surgeries. Dalley said Wright has been an officer for about a year and a half.

The two other officers, ages 36 and 34, had been released from the hospital Thursday night, Alvarez said.

Labeet's half-brother, Keith Labeet, told CNN that the two have another half-brother, Ishmael Labeet, who in 1972 took part in the shooting deaths of eight people during an attempted robbery at a country club in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

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Ishmael Labeet was convicted, but he escaped from custody in 1984 by hijacking a plane taking him to a court hearing and forcing it to land in Havana, Cuba, police said.

It's unclear whether he is still in Cuba, but if he is, "We don't stand much of a chance of getting him here" to face justice, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela told CNN on Friday. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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