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Five officers from the Phoenix Police Department were shot and four others were left injured during a shootout incident in southern Phoenix last week. The incident occurred around 2:00 a.m. on Friday, February 11, 2022. Police released 26-second bodycam footage of the harrowing incident.
According to The New York Post, an officer responded to a call from inside a home near 54th Avenue and Elwood Street where a woman was shot. He was then escorted into the house by the suspect, who later opened fire and struck the officer in the arm.
Trigger Warning: The following videos may contain disturbing content.
The man continued to shoot as the backup team arrived at the scene, ambushing four more officers and injuring five others with shrapnel and ricochets. The suspect was later identified as Morris Jones and the wounded woman was recognized as his ex-girlfriend, Shatifah Lobley.
Although Lobley did not survive the gunshot wound, all nine officers injured at the scene were recently released from the hospital upon recovery.
A look into the Phoenix police shooting bodycam video
The Phoenix Police Department released a bodycam video that captured the moment an officer was ambushed by suspect Morris Jones in a south Phoenix neighborhood.
In the video, an unidentified officer can be seen being invited into a home by Jones amid reports of a woman being critically injured from gunshot wounds. The suspect can also be heard saying:
“Come on. Come on. She’s choking on her own blood. Come on, bro.”
As the officer approaches the house, the suspect can be seen striking and shooting him in the right arm outside the front door. The officer can also be seen running away from the scene while screaming, “999! 999 I’ve been shot!”
The video then fades to black as more gunshots are heard in the background. Police spokesman Sgt. Andy Williams later told the Arizona Republic that another officer arrived at the scene and fired back at the suspect, prompting him to move inside the house before firing more shots towards authorities.
Jones reportedly attempted to escape by slamming a police car with a vehicle but failed. Meanwhile, another man (later identified as the woman’s brother) stepped out of the house while holding a baby girl.
New footage obtained by KPNX-TV showed the man placing the child on the ground and surrendering by raising his hand. As four officers attempted to recover the infant, Jones open-fired and ambushed them once again.
Four more officers were also injured by shrapnel and ricochets in the process. While two additional officers returned shots, Jones barricaded himself inside the home and was later found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The wounded woman, Shatifah Lobley, was also pronounced dead and the one-month-old girl was later handed over to the Department of Child Safety. All nine Phoenix police officers were recently discharged from the hospital and are recovering.
Who was the Phoenix police shooting suspect?
Morris Richard Jones III was a convicted felon who had numerous run-ins with the law. According to state and federal court records obtained by The Arizona Republic, Jones was a self-described member of the Crips Gang and father to four children.
Jones was reportedly arrested on a stolen vehicle charge in 2004 in Tulsa and released in 2006. That same year, he became the victim of a drive-by shooting incident and fled law enforcement officers in a vehicle.
Police later searched Jones’ apartment for guns and drugs and arrested him after a failed escape attempt. Authorities reported that he ditched a loaded gun before the arrest and had to be pepper-sprayed during the scuffle.
Officials also found .22 caliber revolvers, bullets and weapons inside his apartment. Jones was charged as a "felon in possession of a firearm" and pled guilty to the charges. He reportedly told officers at the time that he traded cocaine for guns and had liked guns since he was young.
Jones also adopted the nickname “Petey Gunn” from his grandfather for his love towards guns. He was sentenced to 80 months in prison in 2007 on two different charges and was released on probation in 2014.
However, he continued to be in and out of prison for substance use before being sentenced to four years in prison in 2016. He was released in 2019 and moved to Phoenix. In 2020, he was arrested for transporting undocumented immigrants to the US from Mexico.
In July 2020, Jones was allowed to visit his children in Tulsa but received 36-month probation the following month for smuggling charges. He was back in court in May 2021 for drug use and was sentenced to serve five months in prison and three years of probation in September 2021.
It is unknown when he was released, but he made news again as the suspect in the Phoenix police shooting. However, this time Jones took his own life.
