A suspect in a Marana bank robbery led police on a chaotic chase and fired at officers at two separate sites before being fatally wounded in a shootout Thursday, authorities said.
The man was killed after a chase that went from the southwest side to the University of Arizona area, where he crashed a stolen car. He climbed out of the car, fired a shotgun at Tucson police officers and tried to flee in a patrol car. However, officers blocked the car with other patrol cars and captured him, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a police spokesman.
One Tucson police officer returned the man’s fire at the crash scene at North Campbell Avenue and East Eighth Street, Dugan said.
Once the man was captured, officers saw that he had gunshot wounds and began rendering first aid before Tucson Fire Department paramedics took over. The man was taken to Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, where he was pronounced dead, said Dugan.
The robber, whose name was not immediately released, had an extensive criminal history and was affiliated with prison and street gangs, Dugan said.
The stolen car the robber was driving was taken from an elderly man in the 1400 block of West Valencia Road, near Interstate 19, at a medical office, said Lt. Tim Brunenkant of the Marana Police Department. During the carjacking, the robber ran over the man’s legs, Brunenkant said.
The incident began Thursday when Marana police detectives tried to arrest a man near South Mission and West Irvington roads. He was wanted in connection with a robbery Wednesday afternoon at the Bank of America on North Cortaro Road near I-10, said Brunenkant.
The man fled in a vehicle after crashing into a Marana police detective’s car. He was pursued by a Marana officer who went to assist in the arrest. The suspect headed north on Mission Road and east on Silverlake Road onto I-19, and ended up crashing the car on I-19 and West Ajo Way, said Brunenkant.
There he exchanged gunfire with the Marana officer who was chasing him, said Brunenkant. The man then escaped in the Marana police squad car and headed south on I-19 and exited on West Valencia Road, where he carjacked the elderly man.
He drove off in a 2006 Chevrolet Impala, running over the legs of the elderly driver whom he had forced out of the car. That man was not seriously injured, said Brunenkant.
By this time, Marana police had requested assistance from other agencies in the area, and Tucson police officers began chasing the stolen car near East 22nd and South Country Club Road.
The car headed north on Campbell, where at Eighth Street, the driver tried to turn east onto Eighth but crashed the vehicle.
A video shot by nearby resident Micah Chermak shows heavily armed Tucson police officers performing CPR on a man lying in the street after the shooting.
Chermak said he heard about six shots as the incident unfolded in front of his home.
“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 and then I started filming,” Chermak said.
“It was a crazy mess. It was scary for sure,” said Chermak, a ballet dancer and University of Arizona fine arts student.
His girlfriend, Dannielle “Yellie” Shustack, 29, a ballerina with Ballet Tucson, said she remembers lying on her stomach and hearing cars and a helicopter before she went into the bathroom for cover.
