In a year in which police shootings in Maricopa County, Ariz., have already set records — 71, according to an Arizona Republic database — Monday afternoon’s mayhem was particularly noteworthy: within the space of two hours, four wounded officers and two suspects shot dead in standoffs stretching from a Tempe neighborhood where two patrol officers were wounded while serving a protection order to a central Phoenix freeway where a gunbattle erupted during the Monday evening rush hour, The Republic reports. Police have been shot at several times this year but were struck in just three local cases before Monday.
The shootout on Interstate 17 unfolded as scores of unsuspecting motorists drove past — and potentially in the path of — a hail of bullets before authorities cleared the area. Following a car chase, the suspect exchanged shots with officers, all of whom apparently fired while inside their vehicles. Police jumped out as the suspect put his truck in reverse and backed across northbound lanes of I-17, shots still ringing out. Monday’s police shootings were the 70th and 71st this year in Maricopa County, records maintained by The Republic show. At least 37 of those have resulted in the subject’s death, and about three-in-four shootings involved a person who was known to be armed with a real or replica gun. Driven largely by a surge in Phoenix police shootings — 39 this year — the annual tally far surpasses the previous high of 59 police shootings in the county, set in 2013, data show.