TUCSON, Ariz. — A shooting incident that the chief of the Tucson Police Department called "horrific" left two people dead, several children missing, and multiple people injured, including an ambulance crew, Sunday evening.
The incident took place over three locations and involved a Tucson fire crew, Tucson police officers, an ambulance crew, and neighbors near the original fire scene.
According to Police Chief Chris Magnus, it started at around 3:45 p.m. when the Tucson Fire Department received a call of a house fire on the 2100 block of East Irene Vista. At the same time, an AMR ambulance was at Quincie Douglas Park, a few miles north.
Not long after the EMTs arrived at the scene, police say a man approached in a silver SUV and fired several shots at the driver's side of the ambulance, striking the driver in the head and the passenger in the arm and chest. One of the EMTs was able to call for emergency assistance and gave a description of the suspect vehicle. The 20-year-old EMT struck in the head is currently in critical condition and the other, a 21-year-old woman, is stable, Magnus said.
Back at the house fire on Irene Vista, multiple firetrucks had arrived and several neighbors were trying to help. Then, the same silver SUV arrived at the fire and began shooting at firefighters and neighbors at the scene, according to police. A fire captain was hit in the arm and is in good condition, but a neighbor, a 44-year-old man, was shot in the head and killed. Another neighbor's head was grazed by a bullet but is in good condition. Another person died in the house fire but investigators weren't able to determine the victim's age or gender.
Magnus says "either two or three" children associated with the home that caught fire are now missing, and police are reaching out to friends, family, and neighbors that may have taken them in.
Soon after shots rang out at the house fire, an officer responded to an emergency call from the fire department and was headed to the scene when he came upon the suspect SUV near the intersection of Campbell Avenue and Irene Vista. There, police say the suspect tried to ram his vehicle into the officer and the two exchanged gunfire. The 35-year-old suspect was hit and is said to be in critical condition.
Magnus says the officer who fired the shots is an 8-year veteran of the Tucson Police Department.
Watch Chief Magnus's full news conference in the player below.
This story was originally published by Sam Radwany at KGUN.
