‘I killed a cop,’ suspect allegedly said in message after Yarmouth officer slain

Thomas Latanowich was brought into Barnstable District Court in April.Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times/Associated Press/File

Minutes after allegedly firing the shots that killed Yarmouth police Officer Sean M. Gannon and wounded his K-9 partner, Thomas M. Latanowich contacted a former girlfriend and told her in a voice mail and text messages what he had just done.

“I shot a cop,’’ Latanowich said in a message left on the phone of his former girlfriend, Krystal Bearse, according to a State Police report. “I killed a cop.”

Gannon, 32, was shot to death on the afternoon of April 12 while serving a warrant at a home in the Barnstable village of Marstons Mills.

Latanowich was being sought on a probation violation; he has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and assault and battery on a police dog in Barnstable shooting.

Latanowich allegedly sent a series of text messages while he was in the attic of a small house on Blueberry Lane surrounded by police, and seemed intent on killing police officers, according to the police report made public in Barnstable District Court records.

“I am taking as many as I can,’’ he texted at 3:40 p.m. April 12.

In the following three minutes, Latanowich sent what Cape and Islands prosecutors are likely to argue is a confession to the shooting of Gannon and his K-9 partner, Nero, who were part of a team of law enforcement officers attempting to arrest Latanowich on a probation violation warrant.

“I already shot him,’’ he texted at 3:41 p.m.

“I killed a cop,’’ he texted at 3:43 p.m.

“I shot a K-9,’’ he texted at 3:44 p.m.

Bearse, at the request of police, came to the standoff to try to talk Latanowich, 29, into surrendering, according to a State Police report filed in court.

Although the report does not state whether Bearse spoke with Latanowich while at the scene, he peacefully surrendered at 5:30 p.m. to the heavily armed SWAT officers, officials have said.

Latanowich has been described by law enforcement as a career criminal with an extensive adult criminal history that generated 28 cases against him in Barnstable District Court alone. His record also includes a four-year state prison term, and he has more than 110 entries on his criminal history, records show.

Many of the district court cases, which date back to 2005, were dismissed and in at least two cases he was found not guilty by a judge, a Globe review of the Barnstable District Court records indicates.

Gannon was considered a rising star in the Cape Cod law enforcement community. His death has sparked Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson to push for changes in the state’s criminal justice system.

Nero, the K-9, underwent emergency surgery and has been living with Peter McClelland, who helped train him for police work.