Sandy MalonePhoenix, AZ – Officials released 26 seconds of police bodycam video on Thursday that showed more of the terrifying ambush involving a baby last week that left nine Phoenix police officers wounded (video below).
Phoenix police said the incident occurred just after 2 a.m. on Feb. 11 on 54th Avenue between Lower Buckeye and Broadway roads, KTVK reported.
Phoenix Police Sergeant Andy Williams said someone called 911 and reported that a woman had been shot.
When the first officer arrived on the scene, he was greeted from the doorway by 36-year-old Morris Richard Jones III, who called out to him to come into the residence, the Associated Press reported.
“Come on. Come on. She’s choking on her own blood,” Jones called to the officer from the doorway.
“Who’s all in the house?” the officer asked.
“Huh?” Jones replied.
“Who’s all in the house?” the officer repeated as he approached the front door.
“Just me,” Jones told the officer.
Then he took a step forward and raised his left hand with a gun in it.
The video showed that Jones immediately opened fire on the police officer at point-blank range and continued firing as the officer sought cover.
The officer had been wounded in the arm and was unable to return fire, the Associated Press reported.
“999! 999! I’ve been shot! 999!” the officer yelled into his radio as he frantically scrambled to get cover.
Responding officers surrounded the house and ordered the occupants to come outside, KTVK reported.
That was when a man – later identified as the brother of the woman who was shot – opened the front door and placed a baby in a carrier on the front porch next to a backpack that appeared to be a diaper bag.
In a video captured of the moment, it appeared the man followed police commands and put his hands over his head and walked backwards toward officers after he set the baby on the front steps.
Police officials said that officers initially believe the man who had brought out the baby was the same suspect who had opened fire on the first officer, KPNX reported.
Because there was an infant in the middle of a volatile situation, officers rushed to rescue the baby before clearing the house to make sure it was safe for them to approach.
Just as officers reached the infant in the car seat, Jones opened fire on them again from inside the home.
Four more Phoenix police officers were shot, and four additional officers sustained wounds from ricocheted bullets or shrapnel, KPNX reported.
Jones was later found dead inside the home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Associated Press reported.
The baby’s mother, 29-year-old Shatifa Lobley, was found shot inside the home and rushed to the hospital.
Lobley died at the hospital, the Associated Press reported.
Police officials said Lobley and Jones were the parents of the baby.
The baby wasn’t harmed and has been placed with family members, KPNX reported.
Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams has called the shooting “just one more example of the dangers our officers face every day keeping us and our community safe” during an early morning briefing to reporters, FOX News reported.
“If I seem upset, I am,” Chief Williams said. “This is senseless, it doesn’t need to happen and it continues to happen over and over again.”
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content and Obscene Language:
Holly Matkin
