An armed 73-year-old man was shot and killed Thursday during a confrontation with federal agents, in the third officer-involved shooting in Tucson in nine days.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at a north-side apartment complex investigating Charles Thomas Peterson, whom they suspected of obtaining firearms and ammunition despite being prohibited from doing so because of felony convictions.
Three agents confronted Peterson near the parking lot of the complex, Cornerstone Apartments, at North Stone Avenue and Roger Road, said Special Agent Tom Mangan.
The agents had a search warrant for his apartment and had him under surveillance, Mangan said, but they wanted to contact him outside his apartment because they knew he had purchased several firearms.
Seeing that Peterson was wearing a handgun in a holster, the agents warned him not to go for his gun, but he drew it anyway, Mangan said.
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"Feeling their lives were endangered, they fired upon him," said Mangan, an ATF spokesman.
Tucson police officers went to the complex after emergency calls around 8:30 a.m. about gunshots, said Sgt. Matt Ronstadt, a spokesman for the Tucson Police Department.
Police said they found Peterson lying on a sidewalk in the complex. He had been struck several times and died at the scene, Mangan said.
Agents searching his apartment found additional weapons inside, including two semiautomatic handguns, Mangan said.
"Many of those guns were positioned in very strategic areas for easy accessibility," he said.
Agents began investigating Peterson in May after he was suspected of buying at least one gun from a gun dealer in Tucson, Mangan said. He lied on a background-check form, Mangan said.
According to online court records, Peterson appeared in court in February on a second-degree criminal-trespassing charge.
Witnesses and neighbors told agents that the man typically wore a gun around the apartment complex and that they were concerned about his mental state.
Jackie White, who lives in Cornerstone Apartments with her four sons, said she lived near the man and he always carried a gun.
She said she heard gunshots Thursday morning, and when she opened her window blinds to investigate, she saw police everywhere. "It was very disturbing," she said.
White said Peterson was killed across the street from where her children normally catch the bus for school, but that they didn't leave the apartment that morning because they were getting ready for a dental appointment instead.
"If my kids had been there, who knows what would have happened?" she said.
Crystal Hall, who lives in the complex with her son, said she was coming home from the bus stop when she found the complex blocked off by police tape.
Hall said the incident frightened her, but that she's used to hearing about bad things happening in the neighborhood.
"It's hard being a single mom and not feeling safe," she said.
The Tucson Police Department is conducting a post-shooting review.
On StarNet: View some of Arizona's most wanted fugitives and read StarNet's Police Beat blog at azstarnet.com/crime
Oct. 13
U.S. marshals shot and killed Billy Joe Carter, 30, at the Circle K store at 1395 W. Miracle Mile after they said Carter pulled a gun on members of the U.S. Marshals Service's WANTED Violent Offender Task Force. Marshals were attempting to arrest Carter on a probation violation. He also was wanted for questioning in an endangered/missing-child case. Carter was pronounced dead at the scene.
Oct. 18
A Tucson Police Department officer shot Joseph E. Molina, 34, after Molina pulled a gun on the officer, who was questioning Molina for an attempted carjacking he was involved with downtown, police said. The officer was forced to take cover in the confrontation, and Molina, wounded, drove away in the officer's police car. Molina crashed into a bus at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street. He died at University Medical Center.
Star reporter Jamar Younger contributed to this report. Contact reporter Alex Dalenberg at adalenberg@azstarnet.com or 573-4224.
