Phoenix-area policeman killed; 2 suspects wounded after ‘gun battle’ with pursuing officers

Phoenix-area policeman killed, 2 suspects wounded

GILBERT, Ariz. — A police lieutenant from a Phoenix suburb was shot and killed during a traffic stop and after a 50-mile chase, the two suspects stopped in the middle of a mountain highway and were wounded in a gun fight with officers, authorities said Friday.

Lt. Eric Shuhandler, a 16-year veteran of the Gilbert Police Department, was wounded about 11 p.m. Thursday and rushed to a hospital, where he died shortly before midnight, said Gilbert police spokesman Sgt. Mark Marino.

The two men arrested are Christopher A. Redondo, 35, of Globe, and Daimen Irizarry, 30, of Gilbert, Marino said.

They were wounded after they stopped their truck in the middle of U.S. 60 at the end of the chase and engaged in a shootout with officers. During the chase involving dozens of officers, the suspects either threw items from their truck or they fell out, disabling five pursuing vehicles, police said.

Redondo is believed to have been the gunman and Irizarry the driver who led officers from multiple law enforcement agencies on a wild pursuit into the mountains east of metropolitan Phoenix.

They finally stopped near the east-central Arizona mining town of Superior, where authorities said the two jumped out of their work truck and started firing.

Both suspects were arrested after being wounded. No other officers were hurt.

“It is nothing short of a miracle that no officers or members of the public were injured or killed,” said Gilbert Police Chief Timothy Dorn.

Shuhandler stopped the suspects’ work truck for having an obscured license plate, Marino said. Shuhandler went back to his patrol car, found that the passenger, Redondo, apparently had an arrest warrant. He called for backup and was walking back to the passenger side of the truck when he was shot, about 12 minutes after pulling two men over.

Witnesses in another vehicle called 911 and used the radio in Shuhandler’s marked patrol car to contact authorities. Responding officers included the Gilbert motorcycle officer answering Shuhandler’s call for backup, Marino said.

Other officers saw the fleeing truck minutes later and a high-speed chase began along U.S. 60, which is a freeway in the metro area. Gunfire from the truck disabled the initial pursuer’s vehicle, but other vehicles never lost sight of the truck, Marino said.

Once in the mountains, the truck stopped in the middle of the highway and both men jumped out, said Lt. Steve Harrison of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

“They engaged in what only can be described as a gun battle with officers,” he said.

Both suspects were wounded in the lower extremities, taken into custody and hospitalized. Both were in stable, non-life-threatening condition Friday morning, according to Harrison.

Marino said two police vehicles were involved in a collision at the end of the chase that involved up to 50 law enforcement vehicles.

“It was a very massive response,” he said. “We had a lieutenant that was mortally wounded. Officers were aware that these suspects where involved in a gun fight. They had shot an officer. They were shooting at other officers,” he said.

The spokesman said his understanding was that Shuhandler was hit by one bullet.

Shuhandler was wearing body armor, Marino said. “Unfortunately he was shot in the head.”

Redondo spent nearly four years in an Arizona prison for aggravated assault and related charges and was released in June 2008, Arizona Department of Corrections online records show.

Irizarry pleaded guilty to assault in Pinal County Superior Court in 2004 and was sentenced to probation, online court records show. An arrest warrant was issued in 2006.

Shuhandler, said to be either 43 or 44 years old, is survived by his ex-wife, daughters, ages 10 and 12, his parents and a sister, Marino said. Services were pending.

“Right now our entire department is in mourning,” Marino said.

Associated Press Writers Bob Seavey and Bob Christie contributed to this report from Phoenix.