A man linked to a bank robbery who was fatally shot during a cross-town chase in Tucson had served time in state prison for robbery and aggravated assault, records show.
Jesus Isaac Rael, 31, was mortally wounded after firing at a police officer then trying to steal a second police squad car in a series of crimes that started Thursday afternoon and stretched across the city.
The incident began when Marana officers attempted to arrest Rael on a felony arrest warrant for bank robbery.
Rael served several years in an Arizona state prison for felony charges from Maricopa County that included robbery, unlawful use of means of transportation and misconduct involving weapons, according to online records from the Arizona Department of Corrections.
After his release in 2008, he was arrested in Yuma and convicted of felony aggravated assault, where he served a three-year sentence, prison records show.
In May 2013, he was arrested in Pima County on a warrant for leaving the jurisdiction of his parole without permission, records show. He was returned to prison and released in March 2014.
Marana police said Friday that surveillance photos taken during the Wednesday robbery at the Bank of America, on North Cortaro Road near Interstate 10, helped detectives identify Rael as the robber.
Also, a citizen gave police a license plate number of the car used in the robbery. The department said it obtained a felony arrest warrant for Rael and notified surrounding agencies that he was wanted in connection with the robbery.
Rael was driving that car, a 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, when confronted by Marana police officers trying to arrest him Thursday afternoon on Tucson’s southwest side. He fled in the car, but crashed at I-19 and West Ajo Way, Marana police said.
After an exchange of gunfire with police, Rael escaped in a stolen Marana police car.
There were at least seven Marana police officers on the scene at the time of the shootout, said department spokesman Sgt. Chris Warren.
Rael was then linked to a carjacking on West Valencia Road in which the car’s owner suffered serious injuries when the gunman ran him over in the Chevrolet Malibu he was stealing, police said.
The chase resumed when the stolen Malibu was spotted by Tucson police in midtown. The driver crashed trying to turn onto East Eighth Street from North Campbell Avenue.
He fired a shotgun at TPD Officer Matthew Keena; Keena fired back and wounded Rael.
Rael then tried to escape by stealing Keena’s squad car, police say. Two other Tucson police officers used their squad cars to prevent an escape. Rael died later at the hospital.
Keena was hired by TPD three and a half years ago. He was not injured in the shootout. He has been placed on administrative leave, a standard procedure in all officer-involved shootings.
A criminal investigation, and an administrative investigation, to see whether departmental procedures were followed, are being conducted.
On Friday, TPD also released a photo of the shotgun Rael used to shoot at officers.
Marana police identified the two officers who exchanged gunfire with Rael as Officer Abel Samano, a 10-year veteran, and Officer Gabriel Tapia, a five-year member of the force.
Neither officer was injured and both have been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation, which is standard procedure, Warren said.
