PUBLIC SAFETY BRIEFS

2 wounded in Phoenix shooting

Police are searching for a person who shot two men in Phoenix early Saturday, officials said.

Phoenix police responded to reports of a shooting near 24th Street and Roeser Road at about 8:20 a.m., according to Phoenix police spokeswoman Sgt. Mercedes Fortune, but they didn’t find any victims.

They later learned two gunshotwound victims had been driven to a nearby hospital, Fortune said. One of the male victims had extremely critical injuries, while the other was seriously injured.

Police did not identify a suspect. Anyone with information is asked to call the Phoenix Police Department or Silent Witness at 480-948-6377 or 480-8378446 for Spanish.

Patrol car struck amid traffic stop

A Pinal County sheriff ’s deputy was injured when a suspected impaired driver slammed into his patrol SUV during a traffic stop early Saturday in Casa Grande.

The deputy was at a traffic stop in the southbound lane of Pinal Avenue, by the Casa Grande Airport, waiting for a tow truck to pick up an impounded Chevrolet Blazer, according to a statement on the Pinal County sheriff ’s Facebook account.

While the deputy was on the passenger side of his Chevrolet Tahoe patrol vehicle, a Dodge pickup struck the Tahoe from behind shortly after 1 a.m., knocking the deputy toward the airport fence. The Tahoe was pushed into the back of the Blazer.

Casa Grande police responded to the crash and investigated. The deputy was flown to a Phoenix-area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the sheriff ’s statement. Sheriff ’s officials reported the deputy was “recovering well.”

The driver of the Dodge truck, who was identified as 32-year-old Bryan Whittemore, of Casa Grande, was arrested and booked into a Pinal County jail. Whittemore is suspected of aggravated assault, endangerment, aggravated criminal damage, DUI and reckless driving, the sheriff’s statement said.

— Staff reports