Two police officers have been killed and another one injured in an exchange of gunfire in Palm Springs, California, authorities say.

Officers Jose Gilbert Vega, 63, and Lesley Zerebny, 27, were fatally shot on Saturday while responding to a call about a domestic disturbance.

Vega, a 35-year veteran and father of eight, was due to retire in December, and Zerebny was the mother of a 4-month-old.

Another officer, whose identity was not known, was injured and hospitalized in stabilized condition. The incident began after the officers arrived at the scene upon a call by a woman who complained about her adult son, the suspected gunman.

The father of the suspect had told a neighbor that his son had mental issues and wanted to shoot the officers. “He said, ‘Help. I need help. My son is in the house, and he’s crazy. He has a gun. He’s ready to shoot all the police,’” said Frances Serrano, who lives directly across from the place where the shooting happened.

The father “was very nervous,” Serrano said. “He was afraid of his son.” Chief Bryan Reyes said at a press conference that the officers tried to talk to the suspect first before the shooting took place. “The male refused to open the door and threatened to shoot the officers through the closed doors,” Reyes said.

Almost 10 minutes after they first responded, the two officers called for emergency reinforcement, saying that shots had been fired.

“It was a simple family disturbance and (the gunman) elected to open fire,” Reyes said.

Lee Weigel, the city’s former police chief and a onetime city councilman, said, “This is the worst incident in the history of Palm Springs in terms of officer shootings.”

It was not clear whether the gunman was still inside the house or had escaped, police said, noting that the area was still an active scene and under investigation.

The incident was the latest in a string of fatal shootings of law enforcement officers across the country amid an outcry about the deaths of unarmed African Americans at the hands of police.

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Media reports say three Turkish diplomats have applied for asylum in Germany in the wake of Ankara’s crackdown on individuals suspected of involvement in the failed coup of July 15. Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily newspaper and public broadcasters NDR and WDR quoted government sources as saying that a military attaché was among the diplomats.

Following the coup attempt, Ankara recalled an unspecified number of diplomatic passports. Representatives of the German Interior Ministry told lawmakers at the lower house of parliament that three Turkish diplomats in Germany had submitted asylum applications, the media outlets said.

However, the daily quoted government sources as saying that the number of Turkish diplomats seeking asylum may have increased, adding that the asylum applications were still undecided.

The diplomats are suspected of having links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric whom Turkey accuses of orchestrating the abortive coup. Gulen has condemned the coup attempt and denied any involvement.

Since the coup was declared over on July 16, Turkey began its harsh crackdown on those believed to have played a role in the failed coup. Reports say about 100,000 people have been discharged or suspended from their jobs. Nearly 32,000 people were also jailed pending trial during the crackdown.

Relations between Ankara and Berlin have strained since the German parliament passed a resolution in June, recognizing the Armenian “genocide” at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I.

The bilateral relations between the two countries further strained after the post-coup crackdown as Berlin expressed its concern over the measures taken by Ankara in response to the situation. Germany, however, is dependent on Ankara in curbing the influx of refugees into Europe.

The European Union and Turkey signed a deal in March, under which Turkey committed to taking back all the asylum seekers and refugees that used the Aegean Sea to illegally reach Greece.

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