A string of violent incidents leaves Tucson residents, law enforcement reeling

Law enforcement and community members in Tucson are reeling after a string of violent incidents that began Sunday — when an early-morning gunfight left several people wounded.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told reporters deputies responded to a domestic violence call in Tucson’s southwest side Tuesday morning about a man who the caller said had threatened her and waved a gun at her and threatened her before leaving.

Nanos said Deputy Augustine Gonzales spotted the suspect’s car in the same neighborhood two hours later and began a foot chase.

“Our deputy chased him, in chasing him — hiding in the bushes, like the coward this man was — he fired multiple times on our deputy. Our deputy’s lucky to be alive,” he said.

Nanos said Deputy Augustine Gonzales was shot in the leg during the encounter and released from the hospital the next morning. Deputies arrested one of the two men they say were involved in the incident and are still searching for Gabriel Angel Altamirano — who they say shot the deputy.

The shooting comes on the heels of another incident earlier this week that left 22-year-old Zahriya Moreno on life support after suffering serious injuries falling from her boyfriend’s vehicle in the midst of an argument.

According to reporting from KOLD, court documents show that Moreno jumped onto the trunk of boyfriend Angelito Adrian Olivas' vehicle and he continued to drive despite seeing her. She was brought to a local fire station after falling off and becoming unresponsive. Moreno’s family took her off life support Wednesday afternoon and she was given an Honor Walk as an organ donor.

Nanos estimated deputies regularly respond to domestic violence calls, and one comes it some three to four times a day.

Ed Sakwa, CEO at Tucson’s Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse, says data the organization has received from local law enforcement shows more than 15,000 domestic violence calls to 911 every year in Pima County.

“Certainly, we've seen incidents, including yesterday, where one of the deputies was injured,” he said. “And we also know that it's extraordinarily dangerous for the victim in the home, who is trying to not only deal with what they deal with every day, but when there's a law enforcement response, sometimes that can cause escalation from the abusive partner and create more danger for everybody.”