Five Officers Shot, 4 Injured in Ambush While Responding to Save an Infant

Five officers were shot and four others injured early Friday morning while responding to a shooting call at a home in South Phoenix, where at one point they tried to rescue an infant.

Phoenix police originally said that five officers had been shot in the violent confrontation and later added that four more had been indirectly injured. All are being treated at a hospital.

The shooting is the latest incident in a recent wave of gun violence that has targeted both police and civilians nationwide and also generated a political crisis for President Joe Biden. On Thursday, two police deputies were shot while responding to a neighborhood dispute in Washington state. The day before, a security guard was shot during a dispute outside a high school in Buffalo, New York.

One of the officers was initially shot multiple times when he approached the home and a suspect opened fire, KNXV-TV reported. During the incident, someone inside the home placed the infant outside. As officers approached to try to move the baby to safety, the suspect again opened fire and shot four other officers, according to KNXV.

The four other officers who were injured were hit indirectly by shrapnel or ricochets.

Four of the nine officers remained in the hospital Friday night, and one was in critical condition, according to The Arizona Republic. All were expected to survive.

Phoenix police also identified the suspect as 36-year-old Morris Jones. He was killed during the incident.

Phoenix police tweeted early Friday morning about a "critical incident" near 54th Avenue and Elwood Street and warned residents to stay away from the active crime scene. They later posted an update saying that they were responding to a situation "involving a barricaded subject inside a house." They also said that several officers and one other person had been injured.

That other person was a woman who was also shot during the incident and was in critical condition, KNXV reported. It was not immediately clear who the woman was and how she was connected to the barricade incident.

Phoenix police posted a later update saying that the barricade situation had been resolved. "There is no threat to the public. The area will be restricted while investigators are on scene," the tweet read.

When officers were eventually able to enter the home, they determined that the suspect was deceased, Sergeant Andy Williams said at a Friday press conference. He wasn't able to say yet whether the suspect died of a self-inflicted wound.

The infant, a boy, suffered some non-life-threatening injuries, Williams said.

Phoenix police chief Jeri Williams said during an earlier media briefing that she was thankful the officers were recovering.

"This is just one more example of the dangers our officers face every day keeping us and our community safe. If I seem upset, I am," the chief said. "This is senseless. It doesn't need to happen, and it continues to happen over and over again."

Phoenix police did not immediately release more details on the encounter. They said that they would provide more information later in the day.

Newsweek reached out to the Phoenix police for comment but did not hear back before publication.

Update 02/11/22, 6:35 p.m. ET: This story was updated with the suspect's identity and status of officers in the hospital.