Mohamed Ahmed E A Al-Hashemi, a Qatari national in the United States on a student visa, is dead after he attacked an Arizona State Trooper on patrol in the area of Rural Road just south of the Loop 202 in Tempe.
According to the Department of Public Safety (DPS), on December 19, 2019, just before midnight, the trooper was on patrol accompanied by a citizen observer. While patrolling the area, the trooper saw Al-Hashemi knock a street sign into the roadway.
Officials released video of the incident during a news conference.
The trooper then used his speaker to ask Al-Hashemi to pick up the sign. Al-Hashemi did not comply, however, and continued to walk down the middle of the roadway. Al-Hashemi, officials say, then became wildly demonstrative. Al-Hashemi eventually charged the trooper’s car and kicked the hood area.
The trooper, officials said, then left his car and ordered Al-Hashemi to get on the ground. Al-Hashemi refused the order, and the trooper went on to taser him.
Al-Hashemi, according to DPS officials, then got into a fight with the trooper, in which the trooper was struck with fists, headbutt, and full-kick strikes, and was knocked down to the ground at least three times. Al-Hashemi later got the trooper’s taser and hip him over the head with the weapon.
Eventually, Al-Hashemi kicked the trooper in the head a number of times, and the trooper began to feel a loss of consciousness. The trooper eventually fired his duty weapon.
The trooper was taken to the hospital where he was treated for injuries and released.