State Glance
Nogales police officer shot, killed; suspect in custody
Police in the border city of Nogales say one of their officers responding to a carjacking was shot and killed.
The Nogales Police Department announced on its Facebook page that Officer Jesus Cordova succumbed to his injuries just a few hours after the shooting Friday.
According to police, officers responded to reports of an armed carjacker around 2:40 p.m.
Authorities say Cordova stopped the suspect’s vehicle and the suspect got out and opened fire, wounding him.
The suspect went on and carjacked two more vehicles. He then fled on foot before being apprehended in a trailer park.
Cordova was flown to a Tucson hospital where he died.
Suspects in brutal Scottsdale ATM assault arrested
SCOTTSDALE — Scottsdale police say they have apprehended two suspects in an ATM assault in which the victim’s ear was partially bitten off.
Police spokesman Benjamin Hoster said Friday that 30-year-old Kenneth Martin Mikell and 34-year-old Jessica Christine Evans have been booked on suspicion of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault.
Authorities say the incident occurred Monday around 8:20 p.m. in downtown.
The male victim was using an ATM that the suspects had just used when the suspects returned.
Police say Mikell attacked the victim and the two ended up on the ground. That’s when Mikell bit a portion of the victim’s left ear off.
Witnesses say Evans was trying to manipulate the ATM during the struggle.
The suspects then fled.
Firefighters put out Phoenix recycling plant fire
PHOENIX — A huge, dark plume of smoke was visible Friday afternoon just west of downtown Phoenix as firefighters put out a massive fire at a cardboard recycling plant.
Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Jake Van Hook said crews are surrounded the fire and set up ladder platforms to elevate water hoses.
According to the department’s online dispatch page, multiple vehicles, including at least a dozen fire engines, responded to the scene.
The plant is located in a mostly industrial area near train tracks and an old cemetery.
Pro-Hitler message appears on Arizona electronic road sign
QUEEN CREEK — Drivers in an Arizona town were taken by surprise by an electronic road sign that appeared to be praising Adolf Hitler.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office says it began receiving calls around 2:30 a.m. Friday about a sign along a highway in the town of Queen Creek that was displaying the message “Hail Hitler.”
KNXV-TV in Phoenix reports sheriff’s officials were unable to reach the private company that owns the sign and Pinal County’s public works department.
Crews later covered up the sign and the message has since been removed.
California man sentenced in Arizona for robbery spree
TUCSON — A California man who went on a 2016 robbery spree of high-end goods in Arizona has been sentenced.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona said Friday that 29-year-old Dwight Phillip Bivens, of Fresno, was sentenced this week to five years and three months.
Bivens had pleaded guilty to two counts of Hobbs Act Robbery.
Authorities say Bivens and three other men hit three stores on the same day in May 2016.
The foursome entered a Tiffany & Co. jewelry store in Tucson and assaulted a security guard before taking a diamond solitaire ring.
They then went to a Nordstrom department store in Scottsdale and stole several designer handbags. After that, they went to a Glendale diamond store and took several watches after pepperspraying employees.
Phoenix police: Suspect dies in custody after being shocked
PHOENIX — Authorities are investigating the death of a suspect who died in Phoenix police custody after an officer used a stun gun to help arrest him.
Police Sgt. Vince Lewis says the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of 39-year-old Michael Snyder’s death Wednesday night.
According to Lewis, Snyder fought with an officer and that an officer used a stun gun as Snyder resisted arrest. Lewis also says witnesses helped take Snyder into custody.