Glendale officer seriously wounded in shooting; suspect dead

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story misidentified the injured officer's police department. He is a Glendale officer.

A Glendale police sergeant was said to be in serious but stable condition Friday after being shot in an exchange of gunfire with a fugitive who was ultimately shot dead by Phoenix police, authorities said.

The sergeant, whose name Glendale police declined to release, was shot while participating in an operation of the Glendale and Phoenix police departments and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The team had been trying to arrest a 44-year-old man with an extensive criminal history who was wanted for arrest on unspecified charges, authorities said. David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for the District of Arizona, said the man was wanted on a burglary charge and that he had a history of assaults on officers.

Officer shot, pursuit continued

A shootout between the fugitive and officers began in a parking lot near 43rd and Olive avenues at about 10:30 a.m.

After the sergeant was shot, authorities continued to follow the man into a nearby residential area.

Sgt. Scott Waite said he didn’t know what led to the initial shootout between the suspect and police, but noted the task force is charged with finding and arresting fugitives.

“It is a task force, so they go after people that either have warrants or probable cause to arrest,” Waite said. “So without being able to confirm completely, that is the nature of their job. They go find these people and catch them.”

Waite said detectives were working the crime scenes and looking at evidence.

The Phoenix Police Department said in a tweet at 11:17 a.m. that a suspect had been taken into custody. Later, officers said that he had been killed by Special Assignment Unit officers.

Glendale police had told residents to stay in their homes and businesses, as police were looking for "an armed and dangerous suspect."

Police cordoned off several neighborhood blocks about a half-mile north of the parking-lot shooting.

Glendale officers secured the area and kept neighbors from returning home well into the afternoon, though many residents in the neighborhood lined with single-family houses were not home when the shootings occurred.

An armored police vehicle remained near the intersection of North 45th and West Purdue avenues throughout the afternoon, parked in front of a residence where one of the shootings appeared to have happened.

Sunset Elementary School was placed on lockdown Friday morning as a precaution due to the nearby police activity, said Pam Horton, spokeswoman for Washington Elementary School District.

Witnesses recount tense moments

Lenora Crawford said she was at a nearby state Department of Economic Security office when she saw the shootout unfold. She said it looked like police had been chasing two people. A Glendale police official explained that some of the officers chasing the fugitive were wearing street clothes.

"I saw the police chase two guys," Crawford said, adding that they were running toward a housing complex. "They shot at the police, the police shot at them. I heard like six to 12 shots."

William Rosales said he was parked across the street when he heard gunshots and saw police rushing into a housing area.

"The helicopter was telling everyone to get back in their homes because someone with a gun was running around," Rosales said.

Day of violent police encounters

The incident was one of three officer-involved shootings reported Friday morning in the Phoenix area.

The second, also connected to the U.S. Marshals Service's fugitive-apprehension task force, occurred in Mesa near Ellsworth and Baseline roads. Police had been trying to arrest a man wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of 30-year-old Lindsey Eastridge at a Mesa nail salon Feb. 2. Authorities said they fatally shot the man when he charged at officers.

In the third incident, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations shot and killed an armed suspect in a Whataburger parking lot near 90th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

The U.S. Marshals Service's fugitive task force has two different teams, one in the East Valley and one in the West Valley. The East Valley task force consisted of officers from Chandler, Mesa, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Eight people have been shot dead by law enforcement in Maricopa County in 2018. Of the 13 police-involved shootings, five were not fatal.

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