A 17-year-old shot and killed by Tucson police last week has been identified by police as Simon Pancho, who police said was wanted for several violent crimes, including a robbery where he fired a shot into the floor near a store clerk.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the Tucson Police Department released body and surveillance camera footage that showed an armed robbery, a burglary and the fatal confrontation with officers from the police special response unit.
The Tucson Police Department released body and surveillance camera footage that showed an August 26 armed robbery, a burglary and the fatal confrontation with officers from the police special response unit.
The face of the teenager is blurred out in the videos, which was done because Pancho was a juvenile, Tucson police said.
One surveillance video shows a July 31 armed robbery at a Tucson Quik Mart in which the suspect identified as Pancho threatens a clerk with a gun and fires off a round into the floor while the clerk is handing the robbers money from the register.
Another store surveillance video, taken 10 days later, shows the suspect robbing liquor from a Circle K store by smashing the glass liquor case with the butt of a handgun.
Because Pancho was wanted in gun-related incidents, he was considered armed and dangerous and Tucson police assigned a special response unit to locate and arrest him, department spokesman Sgt. Pete Dugan said on the video.
After locating the suspect in the 1200 block of West Calle Rancho Rio, near West Ajo Way and Interstate 19, police decided to send in a plainclothes officer to buy drugs from Pancho while other officers waited nearby to make the arrest, Dugan said.
But as officers moved in, Pancho pulled a gun out of his waistband with his left hand, transferred it to his right hand and had his finger on the trigger when police used lethal force, Dugan said in the video. Pancho was shot two times by an officer, police said.
The officers who moved in were in plain clothes wearing badges and vests with the word "police" on both sides, Dugan said.
The shooting incident remains under investigation by detectives and by TPD internal affairs, he said.
Dugan said TPD is "not releasing the names of the officers involved while we continue to investigate online threats made against them."
