A man wanted in connection with the killing of a Tucson police recruit was taken into custody Monday night after a three-hour standoff at an apartment complex on the city's east side.
Alex James Barnett surrendered peacefully after the Pima Regional SWAT team surrounded an apartment at a complex on East Broadway and South Camino Seco earlier Monday evening and negotiated with him, Kevin Adger, a spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department, said late Monday.
There were no injuries.
"My brother's safe, I'm just glad to know that," said Shane Barnett, who was at the SWAT scene along with other family members. Shane Barnett said he recently was released from prison and that he had not talked to his brother in seven years. Earlier that night, he said their father was asked by police at the scene to help them convince Alex Barnett to surrender.
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Alex Barnett, 33, was the first of three men police linked to the killing last week of Carlos Ramirez, who was days away from graduating from the academy to join the Tucson Police Department.
Law enforcement converged on an apartment complex on Tucson's east side in connection with a home invasion that left a police recruit dead. In the video, SWAT officers can be heard ordering suspect Alex James Barnett to surrender Monday night. Video courtesy James Magrady, Facebook
Ramirez, 23, a former Pima County corrections officer, was shot and killed about 6 a.m. Aug. 19 in an apparent home invasion at the southwest Tucson home he shared with his pregnant fiancée and their child.
His unidentified fiancée, a 23-year-old corrections officer, was shot in the shoulder. Their child was in the house at the time of the attack.
No information about a potential motive has been provided. Adger said Monday night he could not comment on that, nor on whether Barnett was armed when he surrendered, saying the information will be part of the investigation. Â
Barnett, who has an extensive criminal record, was the last of the three men investigators linked to the fatal shooting of Ramirez to be found by investigators.Â
Santiago Jorge Rogers, 39, was arrested Saturday morning at a hotel on Tucson's south side, the Sheriff's Department has said. He is being held at the Pima County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder and other counts in relation to the case.
A third man whom authorities suspected to be involved was also located over the weekend but not placed under arrest, the department has said.Â
Adger said investigators "thank the community," and that tips help authorities do their job.Â
