Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

The Republic | azcentral.com





Police are investigating the events that led a 43-year-old man to kill a woman inside a Phoenix apartment before being fatally shot by officers in an exchange of gunfire Saturday afternoon, according to officials.

Bullets fired by the man grazed one officer's arm and struck another officer in the abdomen but was stopped by a bullet-proof vest, according to Officer James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman. The lawmen were taken to hospitals for treatment but have since been released.

Both are 16-year veterans of the force, and the officer saved by his vest is a Phoenix police sergeant, according to Holmes.

McDowell Road was expected to be closed between 35th and 38th avenues well into the evening for the investigation.

Officers were called to an apartment complex at 3737 W. McDowell Road on reports of a home invasion just before 2 p.m. Holmes said that when officers arrived, they came under fire from a person they could not immediately see. It was later determined a man had been shooting from a second-story balcony.

Witnesses said they heard "quite a few shots" coming from the apartment complex.

"The entire complex is a crime scene," Holmes said, adding that there are "bullet strikes everywhere."

The 43-year-old man, whose identity was not immediately released, was killed in the shootout. A subsequent search of the apartment revealed that a 41-year-old woman had been fatally shot, and Holmes said police believe the two knew each other.

Early reports indicated the shooter had been "chasing" the woman through the complex, Holmes said.

Police evacuated the occupants of nearby apartments, and a Valley Metro bus was called in so evacuees could sit in air-conditioning for the duration of the investigation.

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