Rookie TPD officer kills suspect

The late-Tuesday incident took the life of a man with a long criminal history who had threatened officers and pretended to point a gun at them, officials said.

And it underscores concerns that Tucson's streets may be getting more dangerous for police, as records show assaults on officers — and officer-involved shootings — are on pace to surpass last year's totals.

Officer Brandon Azuelo, 22, was in his fifth day of training at the Tucson Police Department when he responded to back up an officer who was chasing an auto- theft suspect Downtown late Tuesday.

A fight with the suspect in a nearby wash ended in the fatal shooting, said Sgt. Decio Hopffer, a Tucson police spokesman.

Detectives worked into Wednesday morning at the scene and say the suspect, 32-year-old Todd Julius Pruitt, committed "suicide by cop."

As officers approached, Pruitt was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone, saying he wouldn't be taken alive, Hopffer said.

Pruitt then pulled his hand out of his waistband and pointed a finger at the officers, as though he were holding a gun. He'd used a similar trick to scare a teller in an Ohio bank robbery, according to accounts of that incident.

This time, the trick led Azuelo to defend himself, police said. He fired once, fatally injuring Pruitt.

"It's hard to say what was going through his mind," Hopffer said of Pruitt. "What he did led officers to believe they were about to be killed."

Homicide detectives are investigating the shooting.

The Police Department and the Pima County Attorney's Office will review it, too, to determine if department policies and procedures were followed. Azuelo is on administrative leave, a standard police procedure.

It was the third officer-involved shooting this year for Tucson police. On Feb. 15, police shot and killed a man during a domestic-violence call at an apartment complex in the 6200 block of South Campbell Avenue. And on Jan. 21, police shot at a teenager who drove a vehicle through barricades at a Downtown event. The teen was not injured. Both incidents are still under review by the County Attorney's Office.

TPD's account

Police gave this detailed account of Tuesday's shooting:

Around 10:15 p.m., Officer Lawrence McDowell, 41, a four-year TPD veteran, tried to stop Pruitt for not having a light on the license plate of the Ford Escort he was driving.

Pruitt stopped at North Silverbell Road and West Calle Mecedora, near Speedway, but then ran into a nearby wash.

As McDowell chased Pruitt, a dispatcher told him the car was reported stolen from Phoenix a few hours earlier. McDowell was running on the bank of the wash as Pruitt ran through it.

McDowell went into the wash and confronted Pruitt, who was talking on his cell phone and had one hand in the waistband of his pants. The officer said he heard Pruitt say he wouldn't be taken alive and that he was sorry he wouldn't be seen again.

McDowell commanded him to show his hands and get on the ground, but Pruitt refused, shouting obscenities and keeping his hand at his waist.

Backup officers — including Azuelo and his field trainer, Officer Pablo Camargo — arrived.

Azuelo went into the wash to help McDowell and joined him in giving commands to Pruitt.

McDowell holstered his gun and was preparing to use a Taser when Pruitt advanced toward the officers, asked, "Which one of you wants to die?" and pulled his hand from his waistband, pointing a finger at the officers.

That's when Azuelo fired. No one else did, though several other officers, including Camargo, were on the bank of the wash and heard what happened.

McDowell and Azuelo handcuffed Pruitt and rendered aid until paramedics arrived. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. Police now believe Pruitt was unarmed.

Lengthy criminal history

According to Tucson police, Pruitt lived in states including Florida, Michigan and Ohio, and his last known residence was in Escondido, Calif., where his girlfriend lives.

Police learned Wednesday that Pruitt was wanted in Toledo, Ohio, in connection with a bank robbery there.

A warrant was issued for Pruitt's arrest after a Feb. 8 robbery in which Toledo police believe he entered the bank and demanded money from the tellers, all the while keeping his hand in his pocket as though he had a gun, according to the Toledo Blade.

Tucson police verified that the person Toledo police were looking for had the same name, date of birth and age as Pruitt, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, another Tucson police spokesman.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Pruitt served five years in prison on three charges, including owning/operating a chop shop and unlawfully driving away an automobile. He was sentenced in 1996 on those charges. While in prison, Pruitt was charged with escape. He was released Jan. 19, 2005.

Online court records also show Pruitt was convicted of bank robbery by force or violence in 1997 in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida. In 1998, he was indicted on one count of bank robbery in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee, records show.

Rookies at greater risk

Nationwide, it's not uncommon for rookie police officers to be involved in shootings, an expert said.

After training at a police academy, most rookies are assigned to patrol duties, the police assignment that carries the highest risk of having to use deadly force, said David Klinger, an associate criminal-justice professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who has studied officer-involved shootings and who himself shot and killed a suspect during his first year as an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department.

Rookies also are at higher risk because they still are learning to apply their academy training to real-life situations, he said. But when training is fresh in mind, a trainee has more potential to make good decisions when faced with the option of using force, he said.

On July 12, a TPD rookie on his first day faced a 19-year-old man pointing a gun at his trainer's head during a traffic stop on the North Side. He shot and killed the man.

At the local police academy, trainees learn how and when to use force, and they learn about the different levels of force, from pushing to shooting, said Capt. Brett Klein, Tucson police chief of staff.

"What you can't anticipate is when they'll have to use force and at what level," he said. "It may come on the first hour of the shift or the last few days of a 20-year career or somewhere in between. The majority of officers can go through their entire careers without ever having to use deadly force or take a life."

Tucson is a more dangerous place to be a police officer than in the past, said attorney Mike Storie, who represents officers involved in shootings.

"I don't think there is any correlation between the number of incidents and the training," Storie said. "It's an indication of the violent nature of the people they're dealing with."

He said people respect police officers and their authority less and are more likely to attack officers or threaten deadly force against them.

Last year, there were 13 officer-involved shootings, compared with an average of eight during the past five years.

There have been three serious aggravated assaults on police officers this year, compared with five in all of 2005, Tucson Police Department data shows.

● Tucson Police Department officer-involved shootings:

2006* 2 3

2005 4 13

2004 4 11

2003 0 2

2002 2 6

2001 3 8

2000 1 6

* year to date