A Tucson Fire captain shot and killed a man and wounded his ex-wife before turning his gun on himself in a busy Foothills restaurant Friday night.
Frederick Bair, 60, a 24-year veteran of the Tucson Fire Department, worked as an Emergency Management and Homeland Security captain.
โThe Tucson Fire Department is heart broken over the news regarding the shooting at La Encantada that occurred Friday night,โ department spokesman Capt. Barrett Baker wrote in a news release. โThe department extends it thoughts and prayers to the families of this tragic event.โ
The murder-suicide occurred at about 7:30 p.m. inside Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, a popular restaurant at the high-end La Encantada mall at North Campbell Avenue and East Skyline Drive.
When deputies arrived, they found Bair and another man already dead.
On Saturday, authorities identified the victims as Eliot Cobb, 65, and Mary Jo Bair, 57, Bairโs ex-wife. She was shot in the leg and taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries described as not life-threatening.
Detectives had to interview dozens of witnesses, who were rushed out of the restaurant after the shooting, said Deputy Cody Gress, a Pima County Sheriffโs Department spokesman.
David Hardin was celebrating his grandsonโs 18th birthday when they heard gunshots in the main dining room.
โWe hit the deck,โ Hardin said. People hid under tables before being ushered out of the building. โIt was pretty startling, surreal actually,โ he said.
Hardin said he was impressed by how quickly sheriffโs deputies and other personnel arrived and how many came. Sheriff Mark Napier arrived, as did representatives from Victims Services, to help calm people down and hand out information, Hardin said.
Paul Hallums was walking across the courtyard in front of Firebirds with his wife and two children when a crowd of people came โcrashingโ out of the restaurantโs front doors.
โMany were screaming as they ran in all directions. One man was running, carrying a highchair with his young child still in it,โ Hallums told the Star. โWe didnโt hear any shots, but we could hear crashing sounds like furniture being knocked over as people poured out the front door.โ
Although the situation seemed to begin to calm down, people continued to run from the area for several minutes, Hallums said.
Friends and colleagues expressed shock and disbelief in posts on social media after Bair was identified as the shooter Saturday.
Bairโs younger brother, Frank, died Monday of diabetes-related complications, according to a post on the Rincon High School Alumniโs Facebook page. Services and burial were held Thursday, an obituary notice said.
Pima County Superior Court records show that Frederick Bairโs divorce was finalized in September.
Mary Jo Bair is a Pima County court reporter, according to her Facebook page.
Over the years, the Arizona Daily Star published several photographs taken by Bair at Tucson Fire Department incidents. The most recent accompanied a story in October about a man who was rescued after getting stuck in the chimney of his home near the University of Arizona.
In 2011, Bair crawled through a home filled with heavy smoke to rescue a mother of two who was trapped inside. After she recovered at a hospital, the woman presented Bair with a bouquet and hugged him, the Star reported.
