Suspect killed in Tempe was wanted in Scottsdale for violent sexual assault

PHOENIX — The man accused of shooting a Scottsdale officer in downtown Phoenix last week before getting killed in Tempe was wanted for the violent sexual assault of a 70-year-old woman, authorities said Thursday.

Kenneth Hearne, 37, was fatally shot by police in Tempe on Saturday, a day after he allegedly exchanged gunfire with officers trying to arrest him at an apartment complex near First Avenue and Roosevelt Street.

Police say Hearne fired through an apartment wall, wounding Sgt. Scott Galbraith, around 7 p.m. Friday. Officers fired back, but Hearne fled through a second-story balcony.

Galbraith, who was hit in the lower abdomen, was released from the hospital Sunday to recover at home. He is expected to return to full duty in the future.

The incident occurred while the Roosevelt Row area was packed for downtown Phoenix’s popular First Friday event.

Police said they’d been searching for Hearne for some time after as part of a sexual assault investigation. They didn’t want to risk him getting away after they received confirmation he was in the Phoenix apartment.

“The decision was made, because he is a violent offender and committed a violent offense, that we could not let him leave,” Scottsdale Lt. Lee Campbell said during a press briefing Thursday. “And so that was the time to make that decision to go ahead and apprehend him.”

Hearne was linked to a sexual assault that occurred Oct. 12 at a Scottsdale apartment complex on Drinkwater Boulevard near Indian School Road. The victim told police the suspect was violent and had a weapon.

Investigators asked the public for help with the case and released surveillance camera footage of a man leaving the complex around the time of the crime.

Multiple anonymous tips came in identifying Hearne as the man.

Police said Hearne had been actively avoiding them before the warrant for his arrest was obtained and served Friday. He was also wanted for failure to appear in court for a DUI case in Mesa.

A day after he evaded police in Phoenix, Hearne was tracked to the area of Lakeshore Drive and Rural Road in Tempe. He allegedly showed a firearm when police attempted an arrest, and officers shot him, police said. He died after being taken to a hospital.

Hearne’s DNA matched evidence from the sexual assault, and the gun he had when he was shot was the weapon used to wound Galbraith in Phoenix, Campbell said.

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