Police have arrested three men in connection with a home invasion Monday night that left one man dead and another injured.
Just before 11 p.m. three armed men forced their way into a second-story apartment at 1150 E. Irvington Road between South Park and South Campbell avenues.
โThree suspects approached the apartment and one of them knocked on the door. As one of the residents opened the door slightly, the suspects forced their way into the apartment,โ Sgt. Chris Widmer, a spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, said in a news release.
โThey ordered the three occupants to the floor and demanded money and drugs. The suspects ransacked the apartment while holding the victims at gunpoint,โ he said.
While the armed men were searching the apartment, a 12-year-old girl who lived there returned from a relativeโs apartment in the same complex.
โShe was confronted by an armed suspect at the door who pointed a rifle at her and told her to leave,โ Widmer said.
The girl ran back to her relativeโs apartment and told them what happened. A woman in the apartment called 911 and the girlโs relative, 40-year old Dekota Luise Estrella, headed to the apartment to investigate.
While the woman was on the phone with police, shots were fired. Police later learned a 45-year-old man inside the apartment was shot and suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Estrella confronted the suspects outside the apartment. He was shot multiple times and died at the scene, Widmer said.
A TPD helicopter arrived at the apartment complex in time to see the three suspects running through the parking lot. The air support pilot was able to guide officers on the ground to the fleeing men. Officers also found three rifles abandoned along the route taken by the men as they ran away from the apartment.
Arrested were Alberto Emmanuel Salas, 41, Juan Acedo-Lopez, 19, and Edward Ochoa, 39.
The men were booked into the Pima County jail. Each faces one count of first-degree murder, and three counts each of armed robbery, aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
Additionally, Salas faces four counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of prohibited possessor with a gun and possession of a narcotic drug for sale. Acedo-Lopez and Ochoa each face three counts of aggravated assault and Ochoa faces one count of prohibited possessor with a gun.
