Phoenix officer injured in ambush last week pushed past fear to help stop shooting incident
Feb 17, 2022, 4:35 AM
PHOENIX — One of the nine Phoenix police officers injured in an ambush last week spoke out on Wednesday, saying he and his fellow officers pushed past fear to end the shooting incident.
“We were all afraid but it’s a reasonable fear,” Officer Aldo Nunez said in a press conference. “There is fear but we all pushed past that and we have to do our job for the community.”
Phoenix police responded to a call around 2 a.m. Friday that a woman had been shot at a home near 51st Avenue and Broadway Road, with the first responding officer being shot by the suspect while he approached the house after being invited inside.
That’s when Nunez and his partner responded to the scene as quickly as possible.
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Nunez said the incident was one of the most intense situations he had been a part of and it was a very trying time for the officers involved.
“I didn’t really fear for myself, I was kind of in fear for the community and where those bullets were going,” he said.
More gunfire erupted as Nunez was taking the woman’s brother into custody, who came out the front door carrying a baby girl and put the baby down in a carrier before walking slowly to police.
Four police officers were shot, while four others, including Nunez, were hit by ricochet or shrapnel.
“At first I thought I had gotten shot, I didn’t know what getting shot felt like, but it hurt and I heard gunfire,” said Nunez, adding the shrapnel hit just above his knee.
“I was kind of taken back.”
He did a quick check for blood and didn’t really see any before deciding to continue on and help stop the shooter.
“I kind of felt like hey, my brothers and my sisters are shot and they are in the hospital right now and I know if they weren’t shot they’d be here doing this job,” he said.
The three other officers hurt by shrapnel also chose to stay on the scene until the end of the incident.
“I’ve never been prouder of a group of people than I was that night and that day,” Phoenix Police Cmdr. Derek Elmore said in the press conference. “Proud of the people that stayed in there to make sure that the mission was accomplished.”
All the officers injured in the ambush have been released from the hospital less than a week after the incident, which Elmore said is a “miracle.”
Nunez said he is ready to return to the streets after being cleared, adding he has full mobility.
The suspected shooter, 36-year-old Morris Jones, died by suicide.
The woman Jones allegedly shot during the domestic violence altercation, 29-year-old Shatifah Lobley, also died.
Jones and Lobley are the parents of the baby, who was unharmed, police said.
