Jan. 25--A Mesa undercover police officer was injured after he was shot in the leg in the parking lot of an east Mesa Fry's grocery store on Tuesday during the apprehension of a suspect wanted on a parole violation, leaving one suspect dead and another hospitalized.
Mesa police say at least three undercover officers were fired upon when they began to get out of their car after arriving in the parking lot of the store in the Ellsworth Plaza at Ellsworth and Broadway roads.
Police had identified the wanted man, Dan Strahan, 20, and observed him getting into a car with four other people. The undercover officers then followed the five suspects to the parking lot of the store, and similar to conducting a traffic stop, turned on their flashing lights on their unmarked car, according to Detective Steve Berry, a Mesa police spokesman. Two of the suspects came out of their car firing, causing the officers to return fire, according to police. It wasn't immediately known why the officers were shot at, but the car the suspects were in was stolen, Berry said.
Police are determining whether the second suspect who got out of the car also shot at police.
After the officer was shot in the leg, the other officer returned fire, killing one suspect and injuring another during the shootout. The suspect who shot the officer was the one killed, Berry said.
Earlier reports had said that the officers met the suspects in the parking lot to stage a drug deal; however, Berry said that the incident did not stem from a staged drug deal, and meeting in the parking lot was unplanned.
"That's just where they wound up," Berry said.
After getting out of the car, Strahan ran from police. It was not known what parole violation he is accused of, but Strahan had just been released from prison less than two weeks ago. In May of 2010, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for auto theft-related offenses in Pinal County and was released on Jan. 13, according to Arizona Department of Prison records.
One other man and two women also were arrested at the scene. The officer who was shot is expected to recover, police said.
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Copyright 2012 - East Valley Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.
