Suspect in slaying of police officer found fatally shot

<p>A man suspected of killing a police officer as he sat in his patrol car committed suicide early Sunday as officers from Georgia and Florida raided the Florida home where he was staying, authorities said.</p><p>Timothy W. Berner, 33, was found in Jacksonville, Fla., after authorities received a tip late Saturday by a viewer of the television program "America's Most Wanted" that he was in the area, Sterling Heights police said.</p><p>"There was a loss of another life ... but this is a good day for our community because we now can move to an area that may include some closure," Sterling Heights Police Chief Barnett Jones said.</p><p>Berner was accused of stalking police officers the night of June 4 in a Sterling Heights parking lot. Police said Berner shot Officer Mark Sawyers, 30, while he wrote an unrelated accident report, took the officer's .40-caliber Glock handgun and fled in a 1994 red Camaro.</p><p>Jones said Berner used Sawyers' gun to take his life.</p><p>Police said Berner wanted a smaller weapon than the shotgun they say he used to kill Sawyers.</p><p>A team of law enforcement officials led by the U.S. Marshals Service participated in the raid at the two-story home on Jacksonville's south side, authorities said, and two Sterling Heights detectives were in Florida assisting with the investigation.</p><p>Police said the team entered the home about 5 a.m. EDT and police heard a single gunshot from a second-floor bedroom. When they entered the room, Sterling Heights police Lt. Mike Reese said Berner was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the head.</p><p>The bullet that killed Berner also went through a wall of the home, striking a deputy marshal in the arm, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release, but the wound wasn't considered serious.</p><p>The circumstances that brought Berner to the home were under investigation Sunday.</p><p>The team that conducted the raid included deputy marshals from the U.S. Marshals' North Florida Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team, the South Georgia Fugitive Squad and the Atlanta-based Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force as well authorities from Sterling Heights and the Jacksonville area.</p><p>The search for Berner had been featured on "America's Most Wanted" several times since Sawyers' slaying.</p><p>Berner had been the subject of an extensive manhunt. A state warrant for first-degree murder had been issued for Berner, whose last known address was in Macomb County's Clinton Township. And a federal warrant also has been issued.</p><p>Berner was added to the U.S. Marshals "15 Most Wanted" fugitive list July 1.</p><p>The FBI also said it had linked Berner to armed robberies this year in Michigan. Federal officials said Berner may have wanted Sawyers' more easily concealable handgun to use in other robberies during the summer months.</p>