Photo: The Canadian Press

Modoc County Sheriff's Department via AP

Authorities identified the suspect Thursday in the shooting of a deputy killed while responding to a family disturbance call in Northern California a day earlier —becoming the state's fourth law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty over the last two weeks.

Modoc County sheriff's Deputy Jack Hopkins, 31, was fatally shot Wednesday morning after deputies were called to a rural area near the Oregon border.

Hopkins entered the property of Jack Lee Breiner, 47, south of Alturas, California, to investigate the call and, according to a preliminary investigation, was shot by Breiner and instantly died, the Modoc County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Breiner fled the scene in his vehicle and was then wounded in a shootout with Sheriff Mike Poindexter, who was also responding to the disturbance call, the statement said. Poindexter sustained minor wounds but immediately returned to work, it added.

Breiner was treated for a gunshot wound and later taken into custody, the statement said. The document did not provide other details of the encounter.

Hopkins, who had previously worked for the Alturas Police department, joined the sheriff's department last year, the sheriff's office said.

His death comes after two Palm Springs police officers were shot and killed Oct. 8 during a domestic disturbance call, and a Los Angeles County sheriff's sergeant was gunned down Oct. 6 in the high desert town of Lancaster while answering a burglary call.

The killings in California are the latest in a string of fatal attacks on officers that includes ambushes in Dallas and Baton Rouge, LA.

A video posted late Wednesday to the Modoc County sheriff's Facebook page showed about two dozen police cruisers with their emergency light illuminated driving down a street to honour Hopkins. The video was titled "Deputy Jack Hopkins Procession."