Chief Michael Sullivan on Phoenix police officer death: ‘This is a huge loss’

Interim Police Chief Michael Sullivan and Mountain View Precinct Commander Leif Myers both reflected on the death of Phoenix police officer Zane Coolidge in an exclusive interview with KTAR News 92.3 FM on Saturday.

Sullivan and Myers both served alongside Coolidge, who worked the past five years in the Mountain View Precinct.

“This is a huge loss,” Sullivan told KTAR News 92.3 FM.  “This is a loss of somebody who dedicated themselves to service and this city and there’ll be a hole. There’s a hole in this department’s heart that will never be filled. There’s a hole in the family that will never be filled ever, ever again.”

Coolidge leaves behind a wife and a five-month-old daughter. Sullivan said they will have officers “standing guard” continuously with Coolidge until he is laid to rest. But they will also continue to support his family permanently.

“But after that happens, we don’t go away. We’re gonna be there for the family,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to be there for that little five-month-old that’s going to have to grow up without a dad. We’re going to be there for that family and make sure that they have everything that they need since he’s giving what we know is the ultimate sacrifice and we’re just not going away.”

“We’re all grieving and hurting there’s a range of emotions that we’re going through from sadness to rage to anger and we’re going through them, but we go through them as a police department, as a community together and we’ll get through this. We owe it to the family to reach out to them,” Myers said.

Myers said the Phoenix Police Department will be there “every step of the way” for the five-month-old, including attending her kindergarten and graduation.

How were Phoenix police officers injured?

Coolidge and Matthew Haney responded to the area of 16th Street and McDowell Road around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday to investigate an auto theft report.

When they approached the suspect, 41-year-old Saul Bal, he ran off and jumped over a fence, police said. The officers gave chase, and that’s when Bal allegedly shot them.

One officer returned fire but didn’t hit the suspect. However, backup units arrived at the scene and arrested Bal nearby.

Bal was booked into jail on multiple charges, including two counts of attempted murder. One of the attempted murder counts was upgraded to first-degree murder after Coolidge’s death.

Haney was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, while Coolidge died Friday evening after being on life support for several days in Banner University Medical Center.

‘Prohibited possessors’ are the problem, according to authorities

Officials said Bal has a long criminal history.

In addition, it was the 12th time this year that Phoenix Police officers were met with gunfire, the department said in the interview with KTAR News 92.3 FM, after previously stating it was the 11th time.

Sullivan said “100% of the time those folks that are firing on us or what we call prohibited possessors.” A prohibited possessor is someone who has committed a crime in the past and authorities subsequently took away their right to carry a firearm, however, they still carry guns illegally.

“They’re not afraid to use them on the police,” Sullivan said. “They won’t be afraid to use them on the public and it’s an incredible high level that we see, but it’s not just here in Phoenix, it’s things that we see around the country.

Sullivan cited the combination of three factors as to why there are so many prohibited possessors.

“It’s the collision,” Sullivan said. “The collision of easy access to firearms, addiction, mental health that all collide and make for these circumstances that police many times are called in to have to deal with that have terrible outcomes.”

What kind of changes will come out of Coolidge’s death?

Sullivan stressed first wanting to conduct a “thorough and complete” investigation to hold the suspect accountable.

He said he has received the full backing of Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.

The interim chief said the next step is to analyze the incident to ensure that the officers had all the equipment and training they needed, something he said they do after every incident. While Sullivan said they are going to continue to look at ways they can get better, he said the officers did everything that was asked of them.

“I talk all the time about us aspiring to be a self-assessing self-correcting agency,” Sullivan said. “When we look at an incident where we lost an officer, we are going to look very, very hard. ‘Is there anything else that we could do differently as a department?’ I can tell you though from my initial look at this incident, these officers did everything that we would expect them to do.”

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