PHOENIX (AP) — Five Phoenix police officers were shot in an ambush after responding to a report of gunfire inside a home early Friday, including four who were wounded while trying to take a baby to safety, police said.
Four more officers were injured by shrapnel or ricocheting bullets.
All were expected to survive, Phoenix Police Sgt. Andy Williams said.
The most seriously injured officer was the first on scene and was invited into the home before he was shot, Williams said. He retreated to safety.
The suspect was found dead inside following a barricade situation, and a woman at the home was critically injured, police said in a statement. They didn’t specify how the suspect died.
The baby had been inside the home “and at some point was placed in a carrier and placed outside,” Williams told reporters at one of two hospitals where wounded officers were treated.
A video on KPNX-TV showed a man coming out of the home with what appeared to be a bag, setting it down just outside the front door and then raising his hands to surrender while backing away from the house. The video then appeared to show gunfire as officers approached the doorway and then scattered.
Sgt. Ann Justus, a police department spokesperson, said the baby was unharmed.
Williams said the first officer to arrive was shot and wounded “multiple times” by a suspect.
“This is just one more example of the dangers that officers face every day keeping us and our community safe,” Williams said. “If I seem upset, I am. This is senseless. It does not need to happen and it continues to happen over and over again.”
No identities were released, and police said they were still trying to learn circumstances of the incident.
The neighborhood where the events unfolded has newly built homes, and the residence where the shooting happened had its second-story windows shot out.
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