Officers in Tucson on Friday night fatally shot a man police say pulled a gun on them as they tried to arrest him.
Shortly before 11:30 p.m., officers located a moving vehicle with a man suspected of aggravated assault and other felonies, with a warrant for violating his probation, according to police. The vehicle did not stop when the SWAT team tried to apprehend the man tried to pull it over near East Grant Road and North Park Avenue, police said.
A chase ensued and the suspect’s vehicle crashed into another vehicle a short distance up the road just west of North Campbell Avenue on East Grant, police said. As officers approached the vehicle, the man pulled out a handgun and there was an exchange of gunfire with the suspect being shot, according to police.
The man was declared dead on the scene, police said.
According to police, detectives had probable cause for two counts of aggravated assault, one count of prohibited possession and one count of discharging a firearm within city limits.
A woman inside of the suspect’s vehicle sustained injuries that were not life-threatening from the crash and was taken to Banner University Medical Center, police said. The woman is considered a suspect “from the original incident,” police added.
No officers or others reported injuries from this incident. Police did not identify the suspect.
The Pima Regional Critical Incident Team is working this case and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department will lead the criminal investigation, according to police. The Tucson Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards will conduct “a separate, but parallel,” investigation to determine whether there were any policy violations in this incident.
All findings will be presented to the Pima County Attorney’s Office for review upon the investigation’s completion, police said.
Law enforcement have shot at least 10 people in Arizona so far this year, according to analysis by The Arizona Republic.
A six-month analysis revealed police statewide not only shot people more times in the first half of 2021 than they did in the same time span the last two years, but more of those shootings were fatal.