Two Sand City officers injured in deadly Target parking lot shootout.

UPDATE: The Monterey County Coroner’s Office has released the names of the two people killed by Sand City police yesterday. They were 27-year-old William Spaits and 23-year-old Tina Money.

Both Spaits and Money were known by local police as drug users, says a local law enforcement official who spoke on background.

Spaits was wanted for burglary, evading a police officer, drunk driving and resisting arrest, according to an email from Seaside Police sent in 2012.

~

Two Sand City police officers were injured in a shootout in the Target parking lot in Sand City shortly after 3pm Monday.

The officers were called to the parking lot after two suspect with outstanding warrants were spotted there. The officers confronted the suspects and shortly after shots were fired.

One officer's neck was grazed by a bullet, and the other was hit and taken to Natividad Medical Center, the county's trauma center, according to a source in law enforcement. Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo says both officers are expected to survive their injuries.

Both suspects, whose identities are being withheld at the moment, were shot and killed, Flippo says.

As authorities seek information, D.A. investigators have taken over the investigation and continue to gather evidence at the scene. 

A witness, who declined to give her name, says she saw the shootout while walking out of the Target to her car. She saw a confrontation taking place between a police officer and a man standing in the front of a parked car, when a second officer approached from behind the car.

She says the first shots were fired by someone inside the car who leaned out the window, and she saw a cop go down immediately.

She dropped her purchase for Target, an ottoman, in a parking space. An older woman was using it as a seat while police took witness statements in the midday heat.

Personnel from various law enforcement agencies were on the scene to provide backup and take witness statements. Sheriff’s deputies, CHP officers and Monterey, Seaside and Del Rey Oaks PD were present Monday afternoon.

The Target remained open. Police were allowing Target employees to cross the crime scene tape to get to work, and shoppers were allowed to leave to get to their cars.

Check back for updates as this story develops.