Just after midnight on Friday, the San Diego Police Department announced that two officers had been shot in the Southcrest community, which lies inland and just a couple of miles from the California coastal city's rapidly gentrifying downtown. On Twitter, the SDPD said that police had made one arrest and continued to search for other suspects near the 3800 block of Boston Avenue. The department called for residents to "please stay inside and avoid the surrounding area."

The SDPD also announced that the department had no information on the condition of the officers and asked Twitter followers to "keep them in your prayers."

Though the number of police killed or injured in the line of duty is not on track to rise significantly year-on-year from 2015 to 2016, eight officers were killed and more than a dozen injured in high-profile shootings in July. A total of 130 officers were killed in the line of duty in 2015, compared with 69 as of late July 2016.

Over the past two years, there has also been increasing attention paid to the number of Americans killed or injured by police nationwide, and especially systemic efforts to undermine officer accountability in cities such as Chicago. Large protests have taken place nationwide to increase the visibility of the issue.

mkg/msh (Reuters, SDPD)