Phoenix, Arizona Officer Shoots Man Who Pointed Gun at Police Helicopter

A Phoenix police officer shot and wounded a 69-year-old man in west Phoenix late Monday, November 2, after the man pointed a handgun at a police helicopter, the department said. The man was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, and his condition was not known on Tuesday, November 3. No officers and no members of the public were injured, and police said there were no outstanding suspects.

How the call unfolded

Police received a report of an aggravated assault at about 10 p.m. on Monday at a convenience store near 75th Avenue and Van Buren Street, Phoenix police Sgt. John Buchanan said in a statement carried by FOX 10 Phoenix and the Arizona Republic. A 911 caller said the man had pointed a handgun at another person and then left the scene in a vehicle, Buchanan said. Responding officers found the vehicle a short time later in an empty lot at the northwest corner of 79th Avenue and Van Buren Street, a few blocks west of the store.

The shooting

A police helicopter arrived over the lot, and its crew saw the man standing beside his vehicle and pointing a handgun at the helicopter, according to Buchanan. An officer on the ground then fired his duty rifle and struck the man, police said. Officers gave the man medical aid at the scene before Phoenix Fire Department personnel took him to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police did not identify the man.

Road closure and investigation

Buchanan said Van Buren Street would stay shut down between 75th Avenue and 83rd Avenue for the rest of Tuesday morning and possibly into the early afternoon, and he asked the public to avoid the area while investigators worked. The Phoenix Police Department will investigate the original aggravated assault, Buchanan said. The Arizona Department of Public Safety Major Incident Division will take over the investigation of the officer-involved shooting.

The state count

The shooting adds to a long list of police shootings in Arizona this year. The Arizona Republic counted at least 67 police shootings in Arizona so far in 2026, with at least 39 of them fatal. Police have not said when the west Phoenix investigation will finish or when the man's name will be released.

Arizona's Family, the Phoenix station group that runs KTVK and KPHO, carried the same shooting in its Tuesday headlines, reporting that a suspect was in the hospital with serious injuries after a shooting involving police in west Phoenix late Monday night. Police did not say how many shots the officer fired, and neither report said the man fired his handgun.