I'm not a LEO but have friends that are. Today two Phoenix PD officers lost their lives responding to a shooting. A third officer is in the hospital from gun shot wounds. And a fourth was injured in a wreck on the way to the scene.

  Suspect is dead.

  My prayers are out to these officers and there family.

Condolences to the families of the officers.  For the life of me I don't know where we find people willing to do the job.  

I do have a question for the LEOs reading this.  The following is in the AZ paper.

==============================
Police said the officers kicked down the door and the suspect opened fire, striking three officers.

Officers pulled their injured comrades to safety amid more gunshots from inside the apartment. One officer returned fire into the apartment and apparently struck the gunman, who staggered backwards, Detective Tony Morales said.

Officers sealed off the area and at 8:20 p.m. SWAT teams rushed Apartment 267 after throwing flash grenades inside. They found the gunman dead with a gunshot wound to the head.

Two officers, ages 27 and 30, died at the scene. The third, age 26, was undergoing surgery at a local hospital late Saturday. All were with the department at least four years.

Police did not say what weapons were involved, and it was unclear if the suspect committed suicide or was shot by police. The person whose shooting led to the initial call was in critical condition.
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Is it normal to do  a frontal assault like this?  I would have thought it they already knew he did not have any hostages that the answer would be negotiation and SWAT.  

As to the perp - I hope he wasn't  a suicide and I hope it wasn't quick.

No it is not normal to do a entry if it is known that their is no victims inside but it was not known and was thought it was a active shooter inside per witnesses on scene.  

Robert

DAMN

Sad day indeed

Damn.  

Any of our AZ LEO's affected?

Prayers sent .

Prayers Sent!!!!
Does any one know the officers names. I have a friend who left our dept about 7 months ago and is now a Pheonix PD officer. He is 30 years old, and I have not been able to get in touch with him!!!

Hushed precinct mourns its fallen


Phoenix police officers Eric White, 30, and Jason Wolfe, 27 were killed Saturday night.

Officers struggle to absorb '1 of worst nights'

David J. Cieslak and Holly Johnson
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 30, 2004 12:00 AM


Still stunned by the shooting deaths of two fellow officers, police on Sunday searched for answers about the decision to raid a north Phoenix apartment where a gunman ambushed them.

Investigators continued to piece together details of Saturday night's gunbattle that killed Officers Jason Wolfe, 27, and Eric White, 30. Authorities believe Wolfe died from a gunshot wound to the head, while White was fatally shot in an area of his torso unprotected by his bulletproof vest. Both men were married and fathers of small children.

"Last night was one of the worst nights in our department's history," Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris said at a news conference Sunday. "What we're here for is to provide the help and security that the community needs. Unfortunately, in this tragic incident, these officers paid the ultimate price in living up to that statement."

Police believe Wolfe and White were among eight officers who decided to force their way into the apartment where Douglas M. Tatar, 29, was holed up with a semiautomatic handgun.

But top police officials on Sunday could not explain why the officers chose to kick down Tatar's door instead of attempting negotiations or waiting for the highly trained Special Assignments Unit to arrive.

"It's a situation where you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't," said Phoenix police Cmdr. Dave Thomas, head of the department's Squaw Peak precinct where Wolfe and White were based. "Officers try to process all of the information in a very short time span, and they do the best they can."

Tatar is believed to have fired nine to 10 times at police, including a handful of shots that targeted officers who attempted to pull Wolfe and White to safety. Police returned fire with about 20 shots through Tatar's front door and a window, said Phoenix police Cmdr. Kim Humphrey, a department spokesman.

"Certainly the fact is they felt there was an immediacy to this," he said. "They used typical, tactical responses by having a number of officers in the area and approaching the apartment, and unable to get any kind of response, they kicked in the door."

Tatar is accused of shooting 25-year-old Side Williams during an argument, prompting the initial call to authorities. Williams, who was in the apartment complex's courtyard when Tatar shot him from a second-story balcony, remains hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the neck. Police believe Tatar called 911 after he shot Williams, but details of that call were not released.

Tatar was found dead when SWAT teams raided his apartment at 8:20 p.m., about two hours after the shootout with police. Investigators have yet to determine whether Tatar fatally shot himself or was killed by officers.

Phoenix police Officer Chris Parese, 26, also was shot by Tatar during the siege at the Northern Point Apartments, near Northern and 19th avenues. Parese was treated for a gunshot wound to his left hip and released from a hospital.

Also Saturday, another police officer and a man were injured in a car wreck near the apartment complex as the officer raced to the scene.

Justin Adams, 27, remained hospitalized late Sunday in serious condition. The officer, whose name could not be determined, was treated at a hospital and released.

Wolfe and White both were four-year veterans of the force who "worked together and played together," Thomas said.

"They all had serial numbers within a few digits of each other. They'd known each other since they came on the Police Department. They'd gone through the academy together."

The corridors of the Squaw Peak precinct were hushed Sunday as officers began and ended their shifts, often pausing for an embrace with a passing, grieving comrade.

"The precinct house itself is very quiet," Thomas said. "How people look at each other says a lot more than what they say."

Officers are trying to attend to the day-to-day matters of police work on a day unlike many in the precinct have ever seen, responding to routine calls and pushing paperwork. But the young officers' deaths hang in the air, a silent and constant reminder of two fallen brothers.

"I've been doing this for 36 years, and we really are a family," Thomas said. "We are a band of brothers and sisters that utterly have to rely on each other when something like this occurs."

Sergeants, lieutenants and officers at the scene described by many as "horrific" are haunted by what they saw, Thomas said.

"They're wounded emotionally," he said. "They were there. This is very, very tough. It may be one of the hardest things we've had to deal with in years. But we'll survive, and we're going to take care of our own."

The Police Department's critical-incidents stress management team poured into the precinct throughout the weekend to assist officers on duty. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon also was on hand to talk with shaken officers.

Ministers consoled the officers' stricken family members Saturday night at John C. Lincoln Hospital and Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, said Jake Jacobsen, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association. A clergyman also was called out to the police radio room, where dispatchers struggled to reconcile what they had heard.

Shortly after midnight, an assistant chief came to both hospitals and privately briefed officers and families.

"We're trying to leave no stone unturned here," Jacobsen said. "If we have information, we'll give it out, and the investigation will be ongoing."

The union will hold a closed-door debriefing for officers Tuesday or Wednesday.

"When these tragedies strike, it opens up a real network of family-type support," Jacobsen said.

The deaths are the first in the Squaw Peak precinct since 1999, when Officer Mark Atkinson was fatally wounded while chasing three drug suspects. Saturday's killings mark the 26th and 27th line-of-duty deaths in the department's history.

Thomas remembered those deaths as he spent an unusually quiet Sunday afternoon in his precinct office, stricken with grief but determined to take care of the officers who remain.



He worries for the slain officers' families, and he worries for the officers affected by what they saw Saturday.

"There are those other officers, those lieutenants and sergeants and officers who witnessed this tragedy and participated in stopping it," Thomas said. "They're also very wounded by this."

Mark

R.I.P brothers... You will not be forgotten.

J

Quoted: Condolences to the families of the officers.  For the life of me I don't know where we find people willing to do the job.   I do have a question for the LEOs reading this.  The following is in the AZ paper. ============================== Police said the officers kicked down the door and the suspect opened fire, striking three officers. Officers pulled their injured comrades to safety amid more gunshots from inside the apartment. One officer returned fire into the apartment and apparently struck the gunman, who staggered backwards, Detective Tony Morales said. Officers sealed off the area and at 8:20 p.m. SWAT teams rushed Apartment 267 after throwing flash grenades inside. They found the gunman dead with a gunshot wound to the head. Two officers, ages 27 and 30, died at the scene. The third, age 26, was undergoing surgery at a local hospital late Saturday. All were with the department at least four years. Police did not say what weapons were involved, and it was unclear if the suspect committed suicide or was shot by police. The person whose shooting led to the initial call was in critical condition. ============================================= Is it normal to do  a frontal assault like this?  I would have thought it they already knew he did not have any hostages that the answer would be negotiation and SWAT.   As to the perp - I hope he wasn't  a suicide and I hope it wasn't quick.

Last night, after another officer got shot at, where I am, it took 4 hours for the SWAT team to "form up". It took 3 hours for Hostage Negotiators to try and contact the suspect.

The Columbine experience, means that if a person is shooting, and has access to other potential vicitms, the police that show up first go in ASAP, to protect any actual or potential victims that the BG has access to.

911 tapes were released today.

Tatar (bad guy) was on the phone with a 911 operator. He told her he was in his apartment by himself and still armed with a .40 S&W handgun after shooting his neighbor. He said he feared gang violence and shot him. Operator asked him to drop his weapon and go outside and talk to officers. Tatar said no. You can then hear someone coming up the stairs to his second story apartment landing. He yells for them not to open the front door. You then hear the front door being kicked open and shots fired. Tatar fired at least 10 rounds through the doorway.

News tonight said that both of the officers that were killed had been suspended in the last year for not following orders.

Just a very sad situation.

Were they wearing armor? How did one guy manage to shoot three of them?

The two officers killed were hit in the neck and the other in the torso not covered by  his vest (underarm?). The injured officer was hit in the pelvis. They must have been stacked pretty tight in the doorway.

Quoted:

+1
Prayers sent.

www.azcentral.com/arizonarep...ut-records.html

Joseph A. Reaves
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 31, 2004 12:00 AM

Both Phoenix police officers killed in the line of duty last weekend had been reprimanded for violating department policies, and one was suspended without pay for more than a week earlier this year, personnel records reveal.

Officer Eric White was suspended for 60 hours without pay in January for a series of incidents that occurred between October and December 2002 during an investigation of a complaint filed by a citizen.

The nature of the citizen complaint could not immediately be determined from White's personnel files, which The Arizona Republic obtained through a public-records request.

A police Disciplinary Review Board found that White twice violated orders from his superiors by discussing the ongoing investigation with other police employees and once went to the home of the citizen to discuss the complaint.

"Any future infraction will result in further disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal," the board notified White in writing on Jan. 5.

White also received a formal written reprimand for punching a theft suspect in the face on Oct. 5, 2002, just nine days before he violated orders and spoke about the investigation of the citizen complaint.

"The force used to affect the arrest was improper," White's supervising sergeant wrote.

Jason Wolfe, the other officer killed while trying to storm an apartment on Saturday, was reprimanded July 29, 2003, for leaving his assigned area without notifying his supervisor and sending personal messages through official channels to a dispatcher.

"You sent 59 (e-mail) messages to one dispatcher between 16:12 and 22:57 hours (4:12 p.m. and 10:57 p.m.) on June 28, 2003," Wolfe's supervisor wrote. "Many of these messages were of a personal nature."

Neither of the official reprimands against White or Wolfe directly related to the kind of standoff they encountered. However, any violation of department policy is considered significant.

Officers are given written reprimands when their superiors determine "that a serious infraction has occurred" and the officer's "conduct is unacceptable."

Wolfe, 27, joined the force on Jan. 31, 2000, as a recruit and was promoted to full-time officer in the Squaw Peak precinct in May 2000.

White, 30, joined the force on June 22, 2000, and was promoted to full-time officer in October 2000. He worked in the Maryvale precinct and the communications department before transferring to the Squaw Peak precinct on Aug. 11, 2003.


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That article was originally posted in Glock Talk, I didn't cut an paste the oroginal posters comments.

So after these 2 officers die in the line of duty, the newspaper thinks it's important to pint out thier weaknesses. On another post on ARFCOM, someone said another local newspaper printed the multiple positive commendations each office had.

When I read the article I see one real issue. Use of force by an officer from a prior arrest. He violated orders by talking about the complaint. How many people think if they were being investigated, it would be apropriate to have a "no talk" order palced on them?

The other officer sent 59 e-mails in a shift to a dispatcher. Whoop-dee-do. It's the equivalent of getting caught passing notes in grade school. Stupid for people to do, but getting worked up about it is even stupider.

Locally supervisors are assigned to review e-mails. I saw a print out, 270 pages long, with highlighted e-mails. Most were just "chat". Some might consider that "team building". None had any swears or racial components. Several e-mails that were deemed inapropriate were in Spanish. Don't know when Spanish became inapropriate. A few were just dumb.

The only thing it really proves to me is that some people need more busy work to feel fully employed.

Writing a newspaper article about e-mails, that a person that was recently killed, is far worse than the e-mails. It's insensitive at best.

Wait until someone else get murdered in that area (a non-cop), I would bet large sums of money that same newspaper will run anrticle about how misunderstood he was, was turning his life around, etc. etc.