Three men were walking across a bridge in Phoenix early Sunday morning when a stranger approached them, pulled out a handgun, and began pistol-whipping one of them.

He wasn’t counting on his “victim” being armed.

It happened at approximately 2 a.m. in downtown Phoenix on the 16th Street bridge, north of Jefferson Street.

Officers responding to a call were flagged down by three individuals.

They said they had been in an altercation with a man, later identified by police as 22-year-old Darell D. Hitchins.

They said Hitchins approached them and without provocation pulled out a handgun. They said the man struck one of them in the head, possibly with the gun.

Once that occurred, the victim who was assaulted pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at the man, striking Hitchins at least once.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.