Phoenix officer working hospital security nabs shooter
Phoenix AZ May 27 2018 A 27-year-old man was shot outside of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix late Thursday afternoon after another man with a knife tried to fight him at the facility’s emergency room, police said.
The incident began about 2 p.m inside of the emergency room, when a 19-year-old man was seen trying to bait the 27-year-old and a 26-year-old man into a fight, Sgt. Tommy Thompson of Phoenix police said.
The two men ignored the 19-year-old, who eventually left the facility, at Third Avenue and Thomas Road, Thompson said.
When the other two men left the emergency room at about 4:15 p.m., the 19-year-old approached them just outside and started a fight with them, eventually producing a knife, Thompson said.
As the three men fought, somebody inside a burgundy vehicle traveling south on Third Avenue shot at one of the two men who had been together, hitting one in the leg, Thompson said. The injury was survivable, Thompson added.
The car drove on and the knife-wielding man ran from the scene, but was caught and arrested by an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard at the hospital, Thompson said.
The 19-year-old likely knew the man who fired the shot, Thompson said, adding that it would be too much of a coincidence for the shooting to be random.
The hospital and emergency room remained open during the investigation, and nobody else was hurt, Thompson said.
Police tape was restricting areas of the parking lot outside the Robert F. Spetzler Neuroscience Tower, which is part of the hospital campus, early Thursday evening while the incident was being investigated.
AZCentral
