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 A 41-year-old North Bay man with a felony criminal record attempted to assassinate two Vallejo police officers on a coffee break Sunday night, but his modified assault rifle jammed, police officials said Monday.
Authorities said officers ultimately chased Adam Powell, who was wearing body armor, out of the Starbucks on Lincoln Road and shot him three times as he continued to fiddle with the weapon — shutting down what police said could have been a bloodbath.
Investigators, meanwhile, were looking into whether the cartridge that blocked the barrel of the souped-up “assault style weapon†was from a bullet that wounded Powell’s 2-year-old son hours earlier at a home in Suisun City.
The boy was in critical condition in the intensive care unit at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, after suffering what police described as an “accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound†to the neck.
The attempted police ambush unfolded around 8:50 p.m. when Powell burst into the Starbucks at 199 Lincoln Road W. and pointed his weapon at two officers, police said, while two other patrons and staff members were inside.
Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou said Powell had apparently stalked the officers after spotting them while driving by the Starbucks six minutes earlier. He described the incident as a “premeditated ambush.â€