On Saturday at approximately 3:30 pm, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office was advised of a possible officer involved shooting on Leslie Canyon Road mile post 16 northeast of Douglas.
The US Forest Service reported that one of their officers was in the area when he encountered two male subjects who appeared to be illegal immigrants. The officer contacted US Border Patrol and attempted to take both subjects into custody.
One of the men ran and the second one began struggling with the officer before getting the Officers weapon out of his holster and firing it several times. The officer was not shot during this incident, and the suspect then got into the officer’s vehicle and attempted to start it in an attempt to flee. The security features in the vehicle did not allow it to start and the suspect was successfully taken into custody.
The suspect, 30 year old Jesus Eder Juanni-Moreno of Agua Prieta Sonora Mexico, is being held in the Cochise County Jail on an FBI Hold for Assault on a Federal Officer. The FBI will take custody of Juanni-Moreno for federal prosecution and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office will be conducting a shadow investigation in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
US Border Patrol launched air support and canine units to search the area for the second subject, and Cochise Air was deployed to help as well. During the search the Arizona Department of Corrections was also contacted to assist with a canine unit which was successful in locating the subject who ran from the scene. This subject was released to US Border Patrol for processing.
Sheriff Dannels said, “We are fortunate as a public safety community that the officer in this case was not critically or fatally injured and that the suspect was taken into custody before any of our citizens could be harmed. It is incidents exactly like this that are proof of a need for continued situational awareness within our ranks and a need for border security to be fully addressed. Our appreciation goes to all of those agencies involved and to the joint effort that we put forth towards the success of our mission.”