Phoenix Police Chief Williams praises officers’ heroism after 5 shot in ambush

PHOENIX — Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams commended the heroism of her officers after nine were injured, including five who were shot, during an early-morning incident Friday.

Several officers who’d been injured by shrapnel or bullet fragments stayed on the scene and continued doing their jobs, Williams told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show.

“When we talk about heart, soul, passion, heroism, if that’s not heroism … I don’t know what it is,” Williams said.

One of the officers was seriously injured and a civilian woman died at a hospital after being shot.

Officers responded to the scene near 51st Avenue and Broadway Road at about 2:15 a.m. after a call of a shooting.

When the first officer arrived, he was shot multiple times in an ambush, police said.

Some time later, four were shot while rescuing a baby that a man, not the shooter, brought outside and placed in front of the door in a carrier, police said. Police didn’t say anything else about that man’s role in the incident. The shooter and injured woman are the baby’s parents, police said.

The suspect, 36-year-old Morris Jones, was found eventually dead in the home.

“When you see a police officer today, especially from Phoenix or any place else, just say thank you for your service because they are the true heroes that we have on the streets every day,” Williams said.

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