Phoenix police fatally shoot suspect at apartment after woman’s 911 call

PHOENIX – Phoenix police responding to a woman’s call for help shot and killed a man at an apartment Tuesday night, they said.

The deceased man was identified Wednesday as 27-year-old Donald Ward.

Police said officers went to 22nd Avenue and Indian School Road around 8:30 p.m. after a woman called 911 and left phone on. Emergency operators could hear the woman asking not to be shot, police said.

Police said they also had received multiple calls from neighbors about a loud argument in an apartment.

When they arrived, police said they heard gunshots from inside the unit and the woman was yelling for help. Three officers got inside and said the woman was being held in a bathroom.

As they neared the bathroom door, they heard a shot, they said. The three forced their way into the room, where the suspect still had the gun in hand, they said.

All three fired at him. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman suffered minor injuries.

None of the officers, all men, were injured. A 46-year-old with 20 years on the force, a 34-year-old with four years of service and a 23-year-old with two years’ experience on the Phoenix force.

No other details were made available.

It was the department’s second officer-involved shooting of the week and ninth of the year. Earlier in the week, a rookie cop working alone for the first time shot and killed a man who came at her with a knife.

That suspect, police said, had been threatening customers with the knife at a store and parking lot near 43rd Avenue and Union Hills Drive.

Overall, it was the 25th shooting by Valley law enforcement of the year, according to reports tracked by KTAR News 92.3 FM.

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