The suspected robber of a northwest-side Walgreens was carrying a BB gun when he was shot and critically wounded by a sheriff's deputy, officials said Thursday.
The wounded man was identified as Masoud Madhoush, 28. He was shot outside the Walgreens at North Oracle and West Ina roads on Tuesday. Madhoush remains in critical condition at Banner-University Medical Center.
The sheriff's department said Madhoush was carrying a BB gun that resembled a Desert Eagle handgun. The department on Thursday provided a photograph of the gun officials said Madhoush was carrying.
Shortly before 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, a 911 caller reported a robbery at the Walgreens. Deputies arrived at the store in under two minutes.
The robber was inside the Walgreens and at the time deputies did not know the type of threat he was posing so they walked into the store, Rodriguez said.
Deputies learned the robber had climbed over the counter and demanded Percocet, a painkiller that contains oxycodone. Other 911 callers reported the man was armed.
Deputies chased him out of the Walgreens. Deputy Jay Korza, a 15-year veteran, fired his rifle and struck the robber in the lower back, said Rodriguez.
No customers or deputies were injured in the incident, she said.
This was the third shooting involving a deputy in the Tucson area in the past month. One was fatal.
