PHOENIX (AP) - Phoenix police have released the identity of an armed suspect officers shot and killed outside a mall filled with Christmas shoppers.
Investigators were trying to determine Tuesday what motivated Richard L. Ruiz, 38, to attempt a carjacking outside Desert Sky Mall.
Officers responded to a report of gunfire in the area Monday around 11 a.m. Calls to 911 reported that a man had demanded a woman’s car at gunpoint. He shot the 53-year-old victim as she fled in her vehicle, police spokeswoman Mercedes Fortune said.
Ruiz tried to take a second car. As the woman fled from the vehicle, he shot at her. A 56-year-old man was hit by the gunfire.
Police say Ruiz got into the second car and drove at high speed around the mall. An officer used his patrol car to collide with the stolen car, according to Fortune.
Ruiz abruptly stopped driving and got out of the car. Investigators say that’s when he pointed his gun at police. Two officers fired their weapons, striking him.
Ruiz died at the scene.
No officers or firefighters were injured. The man and woman wounded are expected to survive.
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