A man who led law enforcement officers on a chaotic chase through Tucson was a suspect in a bank robbery that occurred Wednesday in Marana, police said.
The man was shot and killed by police during the chase Thursday that went from the southwest side to near the UA campus and included two shootouts and a carjacking, officials said.
On two occasions the man exchanged gunfire with police officers and fled in a Marana police car, carjacked another vehicle, and attempted to flee in a Tucson police car before he was finally captured, spokesmen for the two agencies said during a briefing Thursday night.
A Tucson police spokesman confirmed the man was pronounced dead at Banner-University Medical Center, where he was taken after being shot by police.
The chase came to an end at East Eighth Street and North Campbell Avenue.The man, whose name was not released, had an extensive criminal history and he was affiliated with prison and street gangs, police said.
Authorities have shut down a stretch of southbound I-19 from the I-10 interchange to West Valencia Road because of several crime scenes involving the incident. North Campbell Avenue near East Eighth Street is also closed. Heavy traffic is reported on surface streets around the closures, including Campbell, Ajo Way, South Park Avenue, Irvington Road, Benson Highway. Westbound traffic from I-10 is not being allowed to exit onto southbound I-19.
The incident began when Marana police detectives attempted to arrest the man at a house on South Mission Road near West Irvington Road. The man was wanted in connection with a robbery that happened Wednesday afternoon at the Bank of America on North Cortaro Road near I-10.
The man fled in a vehicle from the residence and was pursued by a Marana police car. He ended up crashing the car on I-19 and Ajo Way.
There, he exchanged gunfire with the Marana officer who was chasing him, said Lt. Tim Brunenkant, a department spokesman.
The man then escaped in the Marana police car and headed south on I-19 where he exited at West Valencia Road. In the 1400 block of West Valencia the man carjacked a 2006 Chevrolet Impala, running over the legs of the elderly drive who he forced out of the car. That man was not seriously injured, police said.
By this time Marana police had requested assistance from other agencies in the area and Tucson police officers located the stolen car near East 22nd and South Country Club Road. Officers began chasing the car.
The car headed northbound on Campbell, where at Eighth Street, the driver attempted to turn east onto Eighth but crashed the vehicle.
The man got out of the car and fired a shotgun at responding officers who were behind him. One Tucson police officer fired back, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson police spokesman.
The man managed to get into a Tucson police patrol car, but he was blocked from driving away by other patrol vehicles. Officers took the man into custody and saw that he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
He was given first aid at the scene by officers before being taken by paramedics to Banner-UMC, where he was pronounced dead several hours later, Dugan said.
Dugan said it was not immediately known who shot the man.
A video taken by resident Micah Chermak shows heavily armed Tucson police officers performing CPR on a person lying in the street following the shooting.
Chermak said he heard about six shots as the incident unfolded in front of his residence.
"My girlfriend and I were in our house when we heard a crashing noise, and then what sounded like a gunshot," said Chermak in an interview shortly after the incident.
"I told her to get down and get in the bathroom," he said. "Then we heard more gunshots. I saw SWAT and police walking around," Chermak said.
"It was a crazy mess. It was scary for sure," said Chermak, a ballet dancer and University of Arizona fine arts student.
