On Sunday, May 11th, 2014 at 4 a.m. Eloy Police Officer Richard Timmes a veteran of law enforcement was involved in an officer involved shooting in the 200 block of West 6th Street, Eloy. The Pinal County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau was asked to conduct the shooting investigation.
Family members of the deceased suspect who was later identified as Victor Luis Arenas, age 25, and members of the media have been critical of the Eloy Police Department and in particular the officer.
Eloy Police say that “shooting investigations are not conducted as quickly as people see them on television shows. When detectives are conducting an investigation, they use all factors including witness statements, evidence and medical reports. All of these factors are used to conduct a thorough investigation which is what is needed in order to determine the facts.”
Police say that while they understand the family of Arenas is grieving his loss, police claim that their account of what occurred as they describe it to the media is not consistent with what they told investigators in recorded interviews on the day of the shooting.
Police also allege that it is also not consistent with the evidence at the scene, the officers description of what occurred nor the “body camera video” which the officer was wearing at the time of the shooting which captured both video and audio of the entire incident.
The incident began at 2:34 a.m. on Sunday, May 11th, 2014. Eloy Police officers responded to a burglary alarm at a nearby business. The owner of the business reported that it appeared items were taken from outside of the business by unknown suspects. An Eloy Police sergeant on scene asked his officers to walk through surrounding neighborhoods to see if they could locate the suspect(s) involved or any of the missing property.
Officer Timmes was walking down the middle of a public street and was shining his flashlight looking for the possible burglary suspect(s). Officer Timmes was in full uniform when he suddenly heard a male voice curse at him and yell at him for shining his flashlight. Officer Timmes shined his light towards the suspect and saw he was pointing a gun at him. Officer Timmes yelled at the suspect to put the gun down but instead the suspect shot at the officer from a short distance away.
After being shot at, Officer Timmes feared for his safety and immediately fired his department issued handgun at Arenas in order to stop him from continuing to shoot at him. After the shooting, Arenas ran to the rear of the residence and collapsed just inside the doorway of the home. The family yelled for help and the officer immediately ran around to the back of the residence and performed CPR until medical personnel arrived on scene. Arenas was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “Law enforcement officers are forced to make split-second judgment decisions in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving. Unfortunately members of the media and others are quick to second guess their decisions instead of waiting for all of the facts to be known. Officer Timmes is lucky to be alive today and probably only survived due to his training and quick reaction to Arenas who was trying to shoot him. Members of the media and others should get all of the facts before they second guess the life and death realities officers are faced with on a daily basis.”
Eloy Police Chief Bill Pitman said, “The loss of any life is a tragic event. Any member of the public should be able to walk the streets of our community at any time of the day or night and feel safe. I am thankful Officer Timmes training likely saved his own life. Had this been someone other than a trained police officer walking down a public street, we may have been dealing with a much different tragedy. I wish to thank Sheriff Babeu and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office for its quick and professional response in bringing the truth of this matter to light.”