Police have identified the victims and the gunman in a fatal shooting on Thursday of a Pima County constable, a neighbor and an apartment complex employee.
The Tucson Police Department said in a statement released on Friday afternoon that Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay, 43, and an apartment employee identified as Angela Maria Fox-Heath, 28, were serving an eviction notice to a tenant at the complex near East Lind Road and North Kelvin Boulevard in Tucson when shots were fired.
The apartment tenant, identified as 24-year-old Gavin Lee Stansell, opened fire when Fox-Heath and Martinez tried to contact him, according to Sgt. Richard Gradillas, a spokesperson for Tucson police. Fox-Heath was found lying in the courtyard with gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead, police said.
Martinez was found inside Stansell’s apartment and was also pronounced dead by police.
According to police, Stansell went to another apartment in the same complex before police arrived, where he also shot and killed a neighbor, identified by police as Elijah Miranda, 25.
Stansell ultimately shot himself, police said, and was found dead inside his apartment by Tucson officers.
Martinez, appointed by the Pima County Board of Supervisors in March, is the first constable to die in the line of duty in decades, according to the Arizona Constables Association.
“I can’t emphasize enough our grief for Constable Martinez‘s and the other victims’ families. Yavapai County knows all too well the devastation a line of duty death creates for the families, the agency, and the community” said Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes. “ The escalating violence against law enforcement has to stop. These men and women dedicate their lives to serving and protecting the public. They can’t be paying for it with their lives.”