Three police officers shot in Palm Springs, California

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (Reuters) - Three police officers were shot on Saturday in the Southern California desert town of Palm Springs after they were called to an apparent domestic dispute and came under fire as they arrived on the scene, according to police and eyewitness accounts. Palm Springs police reported in an online bulletin that three officers were shot at about 1 p.m. local time but gave no details about the circumstances of the incident or the conditions of the three officers. The local Desert Sun newspaper reported, however, that two officers were fatally shot and a third was wounded, citing an unknown source familiar with the incident. Dozens of police officers swarmed the scene of the shooting, which unfolded in a residential neighborhood of Palm Springs, a normally placid resort community about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. A suspect in the shooting was believed to remain holed up inside a house surrounded by police in tactical gear, with a armored assault vehicle stationed in front of the home with an officer perched in a turret atop the vehicle. A neighbor, Juan Graciano, 67, said he heard angry shouting between a father and son who live at the residence in question before the father emerged from the home, crossed the street and asked another neighbor to call for help. Graciano said the woman apparently called police and that police came under fire as they arrived at the home, and that some police returned fire. He said he saw one female officer who appeared to be wounded lying on the ground as fellow officers tried to resuscitate her. "I think he's still inside," Graciano said of the suspected gunman. According to the Desert Sun, witnesses reported hearing between 10 and 20 gunshots during the incident. (Reporting by Sam Mircovich in Palm Springs; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernard Orr)