PHOENIX — A SWAT team officer shot and killed an armed man as he held a woman by the neck on a Phoenix freeway Friday night at the end of a long chase.
The incident began with the robbery of a Walgreens pharmacy in Casa Grande on Friday evening, Phoenix police Det. Tony Morales said. The man reportedly took narcotics, then fled, in a large motorhome pulling a pickup on a trailer, nearly 50 miles into Phoenix.
Phoenix police flattened the RV's tires, but the driver continued into Downtown Phoenix in a shower of sparks, finally stopping at 19th Avenue.
As smoke rose from the RV, dozens of officers took up position, but no one came out. Then, a rear tire started on fire and within minutes the entire back half of the large camper was blazing.
As explosions started ripping apart the back half of the RV, the man could be seen walking away, tightly holding a smaller person.
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"The officers could see clearly that he had a gun in his hand, a handgun," Morales said. "He also had a woman, with his arm around her neck and a gun to her head."
He walked several hundred yards up the freeway, with officers trailing and others taking up positions in front and alongside, but showed no sign of surrendering.
That's when the SWAT officer, a 28-year-veteran, decided to take action.
"He saw that this woman's life continued to be in danger, that he was not going to stop, and he fired one shot and hit him," Morales said. "He did exactly what he needed to do when it became clear that the woman was in extreme danger."
The identities of the man and woman hadn't been confirmed, but Morales said it is believed he was a 49-year-old man from Jupiter, Fla., and she is his 53-year-old wife or ex-wife.
The woman was uninjured, but was highly intoxicated at the scene, Morales said. She was released Saturday.
Morales credited DPS officers with closing off several freeways and dozens of on and off ramps as the chase wound into central Phoenix.
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