The woman shot Friday by a UA police officer was wielding a large knife and walking toward her housemate, a Tucson police spokesman said.
The 42-year-old woman, said Tucson police Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, "suffers from significant mental issues." She was shot multiple times by UA Cpl. Andrew Kisela Friday afternoon in a neighborhood near campus.
Kisela was flagged down shortly after 5 p.m. by a person in the 800 block of East Seventh Street, Pacheco said, and Kisela saw the woman with the large-bladed "chef's knife" walking toward another woman in a yard.
Kisela ordered the woman several times to "drop the knife," Pacheco said, but the woman kept walking toward the other woman, and Kisela fired his weapon.
"Several witnesses heard Kisela's commands to drop the knife," Pacheco said.
Tucson police detectives are overseeing the shooting investigation, Pacheco said. Once completed, the findings will be presented to the Pima County Attorney's Office for review, which is standard operating procedure.
"Under state statute, an officer is justified in using deadly force in defense of a third person when an officer sees an immediate threat," he said Saturday.
The knife-wielding woman was struck once in the lower abdomen, once in the forearm and also in the lower extremities, said Pacheco. He declined to reveal the total number of bullets that struck the woman, citing investigative reasons.
She was taken to a hospital, and the injuries are not considered life-threatening, he said.
Initially, police reported that the woman was shot just once.
Police received several 911 calls about the woman who was reported to be walking on East Seventh Street, east of North Euclid Avenue, near Tucson High Magnet School.
One 911 call was from a motorist who reported seeing a woman with a large knife, which Pacheco described as having a 10- to- 12-inch blade, and the woman was reported to be "hacking on a tree in front of a house."
"The woman was exhibiting bizarre behavior," said Pacheco.
After the shooting, several UA police officers, including a rookie officer who was being trained by Kisela, gave aid to the woman before paramedics arrived.
Kisela, an eight-year veteran of the UA Police Department, has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure. UA police are handling the administrative investigation, which examines whether Kisela followed department procedures.
Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at 573-4104 or cduarte@azstarnet.com
