Pair on Routine Bicycle Patrol Grew Suspicious of Old Pickup in Desert
By Mitch Tobin, The Arizona Daily Star
| Tucson police detectives scrutinize the scene where an officer shot and killed a man Friday as they struggled over the officer’s weapon inside the parked pickup truck. (Photo by David Sanders, Arizona Daily Star) |
A Tucson, Ariz. police officer on routine bicycle patrol shot and killed a man inside a pickup truck near the base of “A” Mountain on Friday morning.
Police said Officer Matthew Stoner, a 14-year veteran and a member of the Tucson Police Department SWAT team, fired a single shot from his .40-caliber handgun after the vehicle’s lone occupant struggled for Stoner’s weapon.
Authorities still hadn’t disclosed the dead man’s identity Friday night, pending notification of his family, but they said he appeared to be in his 40s.
Stoner was accompanied by Officer Timothy DeJonghe, who didn’t fire his weapon, police said. Neither was injured in the incident, which took place just after 10 a.m. beside vacant land the city plans to redevelop in its Rio Nuevo project.
The officers became suspicious about an older model, yellow Chevy pickup truck parked in the desert near the corner of West Mission and South Brickyard lanes, police said.
Stoner made contact with the driver, police said, and a struggled ensued over Stoner’s weapon as the officer tried to detain the man. The pickup was moving during the confrontation, police said.
Police would not disclose where the bullet struck the victim, but said Tucson Fire Department paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. His body remained in the truck for hours after the shooting as homicide detectives combed the area for evidence.
Both officers are being put on paid administrative leave, which is standard policy in officer-involved shootings. A board of inquiry will be formed to determine if the shooting was justified.
Shortly after the incident, the officers met with counselors from TPD’s behavioral sciences unit.
“Any shooting is a traumatic event, so we have the behavioral sciences unit involved from the very beginning,” Assistant Chief Kermit Miller said. “They’ll interview the officers to make sure they’re OK and follow up every day to see how they’re doing. Sometimes the reaction to being involved in that kind of event is delayed.”
Bicycle patrols are common in the area, where a former landfill between “A” Mountain and the Santa Cruz River is now blanketed with broken glass.
“There’s always cars out here and homeless people coming through, but it’s minor stuff,” Miller said. “It’s a relatively quiet neighborhood.”
Octavio Mendivil, who lives a few hundred feet north of where the pickup came to rest, said it’s not uncommon to hear shots at night in the area, but otherwise it’s relatively crime-free.
“There used to be a lot of transients, but they moved them out,” said Mendivil, 58, a painter.
Across the street, Gustavo Valenzuela said he didn’t see any vehicles in the desert when he left his home around 7:30 a.m. to get supplies for his family’s annual tradition of making menudo on Christmas Eve. Returning, the 50-year-old roofer found police swarming around the neighborhood where he has lived his whole life.
“There’s so much crime going on everywhere here in town. You never know where it’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s a little bit disturbing, especially since we have kids.”