Police officer killed in 'ambush' in rural Canada

By Ismail Shakil and Doina Chiacu

OTTAWA (Reuters) -A man in Ontario shot and killed one police officer and wounded two others in what authorities described as an ambush in a rural part of Canada's most populous province early on Thursday.

Police were responding to a report of a gunshot at a house in Bourget, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Ottawa, when a shooter opened fire on the officers at about 2 a.m. (0600 GMT), the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said.

All three officers were taken to an Ottawa hospital, where 42-year-old Sergeant Eric Mueller died.

One of the two wounded officers has since been treated and released, while the other was still in hospital, OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique told a televised briefing Thursday afternoon.

The suspected shooter, a 39-year-old man, was arrested and taken into custody, Carrique said.

"When three officers arrive on scene and within minutes are shot ... for simply arriving on scene, I categorize that as an ambush," Carrique told reporters.

Mueller is the 10th police officer to have died on duty in Canada since September, including five deaths in Ontario, Carrique said.

"It has happened far too often, over the past many months across this country, that we've lost police officers in the line of duty, serving our community," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. "This has to stop."

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Doina Chiacu in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Toby Chopra and Lisa Shumaker)