Department of Public Safety will not be releasing the identity of the Officer at this time except to say he is married and has been with the agency for six years.
Please note the Criminal Investigation into the shooting is being handled by Phoenix Police. Therefore all questions regarding the actual incident, including questions about the search for suspects, should be addressed to Public Information Officer James Holmes.
We thank the Officers of the Phoenix Police Department and a number of other law enforcement agencies for their vital assistance in this case. We fervently hope the suspects who shot and wounded our Officer are quickly brought to justice.
The suspects’ car was found abandoned hours after the shooting, but as of late Wednesday, a statewide manhunt had not yielded any arrests.
The 44-year-old officer, whose name was not released, survived a five-hour surgery after the attack and was in intensive care.
“He faces a long road to recovery,” DPS spokesman Bart Graves said of the married, six-year veteran. “It’s going to be a long time before he’s going to be able to talk to anybody.”
The incident took place before 3 a.m. at a motel near Interstate 17 and McDowell Road. The officer had pulled over a 2008 blue Mercury Sable with excessively tinted windows — a state violation.
A state trooper is expected to recover after being shot in the face after an early-morning traffic stop in Phoenix on Wednesday, and as many as five suspects remained at large after eluding two backup officers who returned fire.
The incident triggered the state’s first Blue Alert — an emergency-notification system, similar to an Amber Alert, which enlists the help of commuters in locating people involved with killing or injuring an officer.
A statewide manhunt ensued for the Sable, with an anonymous tip eventually leading police to the backyard of an abandoned home near 29th Avenue and Pima Street.
The discovery canceled the Blue Alert, but officers continued to comb neighborhoods and chase leads throughout the day and into the evening hours in search of three men and two women.