A man in Phoenix shot his ex-girlfriend and 9 police officers who were trying to rescue a baby

Jacques Billeaud and Terry Tang—

A man who shot his ex-girlfriend at a Phoenix home early Friday also ambushed the first officer who arrived at the scene of the incident, critically wounding him, and then opened fire on other officers trying to rescue a baby. who was at the door of the house.

The woman died hours later at the hospital.

In all, five officers were shot, including four who were injured while trying to get the baby to safety.

Four more officers were injured by shrapnel or ricocheting bullets, police said.

Of the five shot, four remain hospitalized.

All of the officers were expected to survive and the girl was uninjured.

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"Today a baby girl is safe thanks to our Phoenix police officers," Mayor Kate Gallego said at a news conference near the scene.

The most seriously injured officer was the first to arrive at the house, around 2:15 am, after receiving a report of a woman shot.

Police Sgt. Andy Williams said the assailant invited the officer into the house.

"As he approached the door, the suspect ambushed him with a gun and shot him multiple times," he said.

"But the officer was able to return and escape to safety."

Video from the scene shows another man walking out with a baby and a bag.

The man put the backpack on the ground and then laid the baby, wrapped in a blanket, between the backpack and the front door.

He then held up his hands in surrender as he walked away from the house.

Police officers at the scene of a shooting in which multiple officers were injured, in Phoenix, on February 11, 2022. Ross D. Franklin / AP

After that man was taken into custody, other officers came to the door to search for the girl and the suspect fired several times.

Police returned fire, causing the suspect to dig in.

Eight officers were injured by bullets or shrapnel he ricocheted off of in that exchange, Williams said.

Police were able to get the baby to safety when a SWAT unit arrived at the home.

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The suspect remained barricaded for several hours and was later found dead from a gunshot wound inside the home.

Police also found the suspect's ex-girlfriend at the home.

She had been shot and seriously injured, and she died hours later at a hospital, police said.

Williams said the baby is believed to be the daughter of the woman and the suspect.

She is now in state custody.

The man who removed the baby suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Williams said that he is a member of the family and is cooperating with police.

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"No information suggests he was involved in the ambush, but we are continuing to investigate," Williams said.

Police identified the attacker as Morris Richard Jones III, 36, and said they are still trying to determine the circumstances leading up to the incident.

"This is just one more example of the dangers officers face every day to keep the community and us safe," Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said at a news conference.

"If I sound upset, it's because I am. This doesn't make sense. It doesn't need to happen and it just keeps happening over and over again."

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Federal court records show Jones has a criminal history dating back to at least 2007, when he was sentenced in Oklahoma to seven years in prison for using a firearm during a drug trafficking offense and possessing a firearm afterward. of a felony conviction.

Records also show that Jones pleaded guilty in March 2020 to conspiring to transport, for profit, people who were in the country illegally near the San Simmons area of ​​southeastern Arizona.

He was sentenced to three years probation.

The prosecutor sought to revoke his parole because they say Jones used marijuana and cocaine in the spring of 2021 and punched his girlfriend in her face and took her gun.

In September, his parole was revoked and he was sentenced to five months in federal prison.

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The middle-class neighborhood in southwest Phoenix where the shooting occurred has newly built homes and is adjacent to large shipping and fulfillment facilities for businesses.

Frank DeAguilar, its owner, said that the residence is for rent and that he did not know anything about the people who lived there.

He said a property management firm handles the details of the home.

"It's a sad situation," he said.

Chris Grollnek, a shooting expert, told The Associated Press that it's important to know how the incident was initially reported.

Was it a 911 call from the woman asking for help?

A neighbor reporting shots and screams?

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That information determines how first officers respond when they arrive on the scene, he said.

Generally, a barricaded suspect involves police setting up a perimeter and calling in a SWAT team, which could take 20 minutes to arrive.

But if someone is injured, "the human factor is paramount," Grollnek said.

"If I'm the first to arrive, I'm going in."

Charles "Sid" Heal, the former commanding officer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's SWAT unit, said department policies often give the responding officer decision-making authority.

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Both Heal and Grollnek called the act of shooting officers trying to save a baby "evil."

They also said that the police protocols do not contemplate that scenario.

"Hopefully it doesn't happen often enough that we need to have a protocol for that," Heal said.

And he added that he cannot imagine a situation in which the officers would have left the baby exposed because it was too dangerous to rescue her.

"The moral factors far outweigh the physical risk," he said.