LOS ANGELES, Feb 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Nine police officers were injured and two people, including a woman and the suspect gunman, died, in a shooting early yesterday morning, during a barricade situation in Phoenix, the capital of the south-western U.S. state of Arizona.
Five police officers were in hospital, after being shot, in the line of duty. Four of them were recovering and the fifth “was seriously hurt but on the road to recovery,” said Phoenix police Chief, Jeri Williams, in a morning news conference aired on local TV channels.
Police were called to the shooting, at a home near 51st Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road. One officer was shot multiple times by the suspect, as he approached to help, according to Williams.
“There was a baby in the home, who, at some point, was placed in a carrier and placed outside. As officers went to bring that baby to safety, the suspect continued to shoot, firing and striking four other officers,” Williams said, adding that, the officers returned fire.
Officials later confirmed that four other police officers were also wounded by bullet shrapnel.
A woman was found injured in the house, and died later in the day.
The suspect was barricaded in the house for several hours. As police officers made their way into the house around 7:00 a.m. local time, they found the suspect dead inside.
The suspect and the woman are believed to be former boyfriend and girlfriend with a child, likely the baby involved in the incident. It is unclear at this time, if the suspect died from self-inflicted wounds, and a motive in the shooting is not known, reported the news outlet.
Williams called the incident “senseless” during the news conference.
“It doesn’t need to happen and it continues to happen over and over again,” said the police chief.– NNN-AGENCIES
