CenturyLink – by BRIAN SKOLOFF
PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix police officer was out of surgery and recovering in an intensive-care unit after being critically wounded by a fugitive in a shootout that left a fellow officer and the suspect dead, authorities said.
Police Chief Daniel Garcia and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton both said at a news conference outside the hospital Monday night that the injured officer, a nine-year veteran of the force, was “still fighting for his life” and asked for prayers for the families of both officers.
“Today is a tragic reminder that our officers risk their lives for us every single day,” said Stanton, who had left on an official trip to Mexico on Monday, but returned later the same day.
Garcia said, “We need a lot of support right now — these are the tough times of policing.”
The fallen officer, a 21-year veteran, was a member of the Police Department’s fugitive apprehension team and died of his wounds at a hospital a few hours after the shooting at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Garcia said.
No identities have been released.
The shootout occurred after a man wanted on a felony warrant fled in a car, caused a three-vehicle collision, then ran away before exchanging gunfire with officers outside a check-cashing and title loan business, authorities said.
“It was obvious that the guy was out of control,” said Wayne Monton, who owns a nearby business and witnessed the shooting. “After the crash and the shooting, everybody just took off running. It was chaos.”
The suspect came around a corner with a gun, and a third officer fatally shot him, Detective James Holmes said.
The suspect’s name was not immediately released.
An 83-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man suffered minor injuries in the car crash that closed an intersection for several hours as authorities gathered evidence.
Nick Cusson, the manager of a restaurant in a shopping center near the intersection, said he heard more than a dozen gunshots a few minutes after arriving at work.
“The next thing you know, the whole parking lot is scattered with people,” Cusson said. “Then within about 30 seconds, we see all these cops driving up.”
Cusson said he had noticed several unmarked police cars parked nearby just before the shooting but didn’t think much of it.
“Then I guess there was a shootout,” he said. “We were all looking out the window. We were kind of curious. We weren’t sure they were gunshots at first.”
Cusson said he was closing his shop because the entire area had been cordoned off by police.
“No one can come pick their food up, and we can’t get delivery drivers out,” he said
when approached by these officers, did the guy fire first? were there any witnesses other than the cops?
what was he so afraid of he felt the need to start shooting, run, start shooting again, taking down as many of them as he could before knowing he was going to die?
don’t think that this scenario hasn’t taken place before it just can’t be proven.
not saying this is the case here because I really don’t know.
what instantly caught my attention is it took place in Arizona.
would like to know more about the dead suspect not just the cops wrap sheet on the guy either but we know that will never happen.
and what was the warrant for? drugs, burglary, possession of stolen property, vehicle theft, assault, etc…
That’s right Mel.
What was the warrant for? Jaywalking, I do not believe any LEO anymore.. BUT , apparently they did encounter a bad ass, who was not going to give in easily. Just a sign of things to come in all states.
Garcia said, “We need a lot of support right now — these are the tough times of policing.”
You need a lot of support? For what? So you can run around raping people on the side of the road?
I’m glad your pig friend is dead, and I hope someone pulls the plug on the other one.
The “tough times of policing” haven’t even begun yet, pig-boy, and if you think you’re going to get any “support” you’re out of your mind. The American people know what you do all day.
I can’t support an out of control system. I can’t support a system that’s above the law. I can’t support a system that’s makes a mockery of the justice system. I can’t support a system that abuses its citizens. I can’t support a system that imprisons people for every little crime picking and choosing who will be on the chopping block and who won’t. going after petty criminals, drug users, drug dealers not on your payroll as murderers, rapists, and pedophiles are allowed to basicly go unpunished abusing each new generation just so you have a job. you can’t say you didn’t know or you had no choice. all of us have a choice. do I know the risks of being on this site and typing these words, yes.
bla bla bla is all this is
cry me a river..this party hasent even begun to start
we didn’t start the fire
but we dam sure will look for a way to extinguish it one jackboot at a time, what? don’t like push back, cant take a little of this coming back at ya..just like the bully in the sand box, when he finally meets his match..what do they do? cry and act like they don’t know why.
There will be very little sympathy from the general public. I am not surprised he reacted like this because the police are out of control and people just cannot trust them to simply be decent anymore. If they do go after someone with a warrant, they cannot be trusted to just arrest them without throwing people to the ground while battering them and shouting, ‘stop resisting’. You may have a charge against you and warrant out for a traffic offense and then suddenly two cops have racked up another load of charges because they were chosen to carry out the warrant and they did not like it. How can people be expected to support a police force that is so corrupt and actually sees the people who pay their wages as the enemy. How can the police be respected when they can kill Kelly Thomas on film and get away with it due to a corrupt court system and corrupt DA? How can the police not be held to a higher standard when it comes to the law, they are let off with major crimes by getting minor charges against them for murders, rapes etc. It is truly disgusting how the enforcers of the laws are the ones most likely to commit murder in the U.S AND get away with it by uttering the words, ‘I was in fear of my life’… It is sickening when a mother takes a wrong turn and is executed with her child in the back of the car and congress applaud it for 30 seconds. The whole system needs cleaning because it is not just domestically where these criminals prey, it is around the whole world and I will tell you all why… The U.S and most other Western countries has been infected by the zionist plague. This disease has infiltrated every portion of every life on the planet and will not stop until we have a global nuclear war or complete domination where we gentiles are killed off in our billions and the zionist scum are left with who ever’s not dead to be their slave. You may think I am mad for saying all this but trust me the zionist Rothschild scum and their ilk are well on the way to accomplishing their goal of world domination. They have their underground installations all ready to retreat into when the nukes start dropping. They seem prepared to kill everything up top and live down in the Earth for thousands of years so they have a clean slate when future generations emerge. Maybe they actually have the key to immortality, if they had, they would never tell anyone. They would be prepared to drop the nuke hammer if they had managed immortality, I wonder… Anyway I hope to God we all pull together and stop this evil parasitic plague. God bless us all…
Good riddance to a foul thing.