Montgomery: Majority of suspects in Maricopa County OIS were armed

PHOENIX — Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said more than half of the officer-involved shootings that his office has investigated involved armed suspects.

“Easily more than half, maybe two-thirds even, have involved suspects who were armed and who drew down on officers, ” Montgomery said during a press conference last week.

Some of the suspects also have not hesitated to fire on police, Montgomery added.

“We’ve had a couple of recent shootings where that was the suspect’s first act, which was to draw on an officer and fire,” he said.

Montgomery said in some cases, a suspect does not want to be taken into custody and decides to shoot it out with police.

“You got fugitive apprehension teams going out to effect an arrest warrant and then the person they are trying to arrest, doesn’t want to be arrested, and they’re using weapons against police,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery also said he supports Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams’ interest in wanting to bring in an outside entity to review officer-involved shootings. There have been 37 officer-involved shootings in the city so far this year.

“I think it’s still a healthy review to take a look at the tactics that are being employed and the training that’s being employed just to make sure that officers are being as safe as they can be and the community is as safe as it can be,” Montgomery said.

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