Why did these dumb pigs decide to arrest an armed robber in a crowded mall where innocent civilians could be killed in a shootout? Dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!
I suspect for these trigger happy cops catching bad guys is more important then protecting people from criminals.
If that isn't true why on earth would these trigger happy cops have a gun fight in a busy mall while people are returning Christmas gifts and presents?
Chandler mall visitors make quick exit after shootout
Posted: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 7:09 pm | Updated: 11:36 pm, Wed Jan 5, 2011.
By Ari Cohn, Ahwatukee Foothills News | 0 comments
People inside the Chandler Fashion Center when it went on lock-down in the wake of a gunfight Wednesday say they heard yelling and a scuffle, followed by security's orders over the loudspeaker that everyone evacuate the mall.
"I heard yelling, I heard screaming," said one store manager, who couldn't identify herself or her store name due to company policy.
Michael Beyne, a worker for Auntie Anne's Pretzels in the mall, said it was a very chaotic scene after U.S. Marshals and SWAT team members arrived at the mall, which he said was crowded.
"They were running after him with guns drawn yelling and hollering and screaming at everyone, 'Get out! Get out of the mall,' as people were running.
"You don't expect that at Chandler Fashion mall. It was chaotic."
Another witness said workers and shoppers all made a hasty exit after the announcements began.
"All I heard was, ‘Get out of the mall, now,'" she said. "People just ran for the exits and that was it."
The mall reopened around 5 p.m., after police combed the facility for several hours.
"This is a large property and it's going to take a lot of time to search through it," said Sgt. Joe Favazzo, a Chandler Police Department spokesman. "There are a lot of hallways and alcoves and places where people could be."
Shopper George Mayelben, a winter visitor from South Dakota, said he entered the mall through Sears while it was still on lockdown, unaware that anything was amiss. The doors were unlocked. Nearly the only people inside were security and law enforcement, and the shops and displays were left unattended, he said.
"There are goods just out in the open," Mayelben said.
Trevor Taft, an employee at the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant, said when he arrived for his shift, he found the place empty.
"All the lights are down. Everything's closed down," he said.
Customers allowed into the mall after it reopened found almost all the stores closed for the remainder of the day.
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Contact Writer: (480) 898-7914 or acohn@ahwatukee.com
Man surrenders after standoff; Chandler mall reopens
Posted: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 12:45 pm | Updated: 12:03 am, Thu Jan 6, 2011.
Tribune
A man holed up in a Chandler restaurant during an armed standoff has surrendered and the nearby mall has reopened, hours after it was locked down in the wake of an officer-involved shooting.
Police evacuated Chandler Fashion Center on Wednesday after officers with a U.S. Marshal's fugitive task force exchanged gunfire with a man in a mall parking lot around noon. The man fled into the mall's Sears store, where officers lost him.
Minutes later, authorities surrounded the Baja Fresh fast-food restaurant in a strip center north of the mall in response to reports of shots being fired and a hostage situation. The suspect fired several shots upon entering, likely into the air. Nobody was injured.
The man the task force engaged at the mall was initially believed to be wanted fugitive Daniel Perez, according to DPS spokesman Robert Bailey, but Perez was not the man arrested at Baja Fresh. That man was identified Wednesday evening as Adam Hernandez, 28.
Police don’t know whether Perez was involved with any of the day’s events, Chandler police Sgt. Favazzo said. Perez was being held on two counts of aggravated assault against DPS officers after a Dec. 10 shooting incident in Casa Grande. However, on Dec. 16 he was mistakenly released from custody by a Pinal County Justice of the Peace court after posting $320 bond on an outstanding misdemeanor charge from 2009.
U.S. Marshals do not believe the robbery at Baja Fresh was connected to Perez, but they believe the suspect may be. The task force had been investigating recent East Valley robberies and followed a man they believed to be Perez from an East Valley residence in a blue Kia SUV to the mall.
"We believe that the vehicle and robberies may have been connected to Daniel Perez," said Thomas Henman, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Service. Authorities were fingerprinting and searching a blue Kia SUV in the parking lot they believe belong to the suspect.
At least two people remained in the business while negotiators were in contact with the man during the standoff, and just before 3 p.m. Hernandez came outside, took his shirt off and laid on the ground as he was surrounded by police.
Police evacuated hundreds of midday shoppers from the mall. Traffic was snarled along the Loop 101 exit ramp at Chandler Boulevard and police shut down the road leading into the mall.
Shoppers who had been stuck in the mall were eventually led out through the second level of Sears, where Chandler detectives were waiting to briefly speak with them to see if they had any useful information.
Police still needed to search the mall to determine if any suspects remained, Favazzo said.
Despite gunshots being fired both at the mall and at Baja Fresh across the street, no one was injured.
December Davis, 22, a waitress at the Kona Grill inside the mall, said she and others inside her restaurant were told to drop everything and exit the shopping center. People left without their purses, cell phones and other belongings.
Michael Beyne, a worker for Auntie Anne's Pretzels in the mall, said it was a very chaotic scene after U.S. Marshals and SWAT team members arrived at the mall, which he said was crowded. "They were running after him with guns drawn yelling and hollering and screaming at everyone, 'Get out! Get out of the mall,' as people were running.
"You don't expect that at Chandler Fashion mall. It was chaotic."
Workers then exited the mall outside the employee hallway as everyone got out, Beyne said.
He said he heard "three or four" shots inside the mall.
The law-enforcement response consisted of various agencies, including DPS, Pinal County Sheriff's Office, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the Chandler, Tempe and Mesa police units as well as the U.S. Marshal's Service and local fire departments.
East Valley Tribune writers Dan Zeiger, Garin Groff and Mike Sakal contributed to this report.
Chandler mall shooting: Arrest not of sought fugitive
by Laurie Merrill, Stephanie Russo and Molly Smith - Jan. 5, 2011 09:12 PM
The Arizona Republic
The hunt for a fugitive led to a shootout Wednesday at Chandler Fashion Center, followed by five hours of chaos, a police standoff and, finally, to an arrest.
No one was injured in separate shootings outside the Sears department store and at a nearby Baja Fresh restaurant. After several hours of negotiations at the eatery, Adam Hernandez, 27, the suspect in both shootings, surrendered peacefully.
Police had been searching for fugitive Daniel Perez, who had been mistakenly released from a Pinal County jail in December. The standoff ended with police finding Hernandez.
The U.S. Marshals Service told 12 News Wednesday evening that Hernandez and Perez knew each other and had served time in a Tucson prison in 2009. The fugitive task force had been watching a car Perez was known to drive, but the Marshals Service said only Hernandez had been in the vehicle.
Records show Hernandez was released from state prison in 2009, where he had served time for aggravated assault.
"We are very thankful no one has been injured and that this ended peacefully," said Chandler Police Sgt. Joe Favazzo.
Perez was arrested in December on suspicion of shooting at Department of Public Safety officers in Casa Grande. But he was mistakenly allowed to make bond and freed Dec. 16 from a Pinal County jail.
Since then, apprehending Perez has been the No. 1 priority of a DPS fugitive task force, said DPS spokesman Bart Graves.
A description matching his had been linked to a series of armed robberies in the East Valley in recent days, Graves said.
The search turned more dramatic Wednesday when officers arrived at the mall.
Officers believe the man they were following may have robbed a hotel south of the mall, according to Favazzo.
Officers followed him to the mall area and confronted him in the parking lot, where he opened fire on them, Favazzo said. Officers fired back, and the man fled into Sears.
Officers chased him but lost sight of him, and police decided to lock down the mall to find him, Favazzo said.
"While securing the mall, we were told that shots were being fired at Baja Fresh," Favazzo said.
A man had run into the eatery across the street from the mall and fired shots, Favazzo said. Most people in the restaurant fled immediately, but at least two remained, and were shut in the restaurant as tactical officers negotiated with the gunman.
Tactical units from the state Department of Public Safety, Chandler and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office responded to Baja Fresh.
For hours, police were uncertain whether they were dealing with two suspects in two places, one at the Baja Fresh and one in the mall. The mall was locked down for five hours as police checked identifications of some 200 people inside and methodically searched every "alcove and hallway," Favazzo said.
Only when the gunman surrendered were officers certain they had found Hernandez, not Perez, and that there was no other person hiding in the mall. Hernandez was responsible for both shooting incidents Wednesday, Chandler and DPS officers said.
At least three people who had been trapped inside Baja Fresh emerged shaken but unhurt.
The scene inside the mall was chaotic as the event unfolded. Guards initially dashed through its corridors, telling shoppers to either get down or get into a store, according to a woman who was inside when it was locked down.
All the stores started closing their gates, said Christine Anderson, 38, of Chandler.
Anderson said all the stores around her were already locked, but an employee at Aeropostale let her in. "It was scary," she said. "I didn't know where to go."
Once the store was locked up, the people who made it inside were instructed to leave the mall through the employee exit next to Sears.
Kyrene Del Sureno Elementary School, north of the Baja Fresh, was also put on lockdown about 12:30 p.m., according to Nancy Dudenhoefer, a spokeswoman for the Kyrene School District.
Retailers and restaurant operators are assessing the financial damage of a four-and-a-half hour lockdown at the 1.1 million-square-foot shopping center near Chandler Boulevard and the Loop 101 freeway.
The mall reopened at about 4:30 p.m.
Kimberly Hastings, a spokeswoman for mall owner Westcor, was unable to say how many people were in the mall when it was evacuated or how much business may have been lost.
Wildflower Bread Co. had a full house of more than 200 customers who were told by police to "get out now," according to restaurant manager Jenny Niman.
"People were running for the exits," she said. "It was kind of crazy."
She estimated the restaurant lost between $3,000 and $4,000, but noted "At least everybody is okay. That's what's important."
Lindsey Collom, Max Jarman and J.J. Hensley contributed to this report.
Chandler mall shooting: Fleeing suspect taunted officers
by Daniel Jacka - Jan. 6, 2011 11:50 AM
Arizona Republic/12 News Breaking News Team
The suspect in Wednesday's shootout at the Chandler Fashion Center
escaped from the mall before police surrounded it and ran to a nearby restaurant
where he fired shots at officers and held two women hostage,
according to court records.
The records report that the suspect, Adam Armando Hernandez, taunted officers as they pursued him from the mall to the Baja Fresh restaurant across Chandler Boulevard, shaking his hand at them, showing them his middle finger, pulling a handgun from his waistband and shooting at them after he entered the restaurant.
Hernandez, 27, is being held in Maricopa County Jail on $1 million bond. He has been charged with attempted first degree murder of an officer and theft. He had been released from state prison in 2009, where he served time for aggravated assault.
A police report filed with the San Marcos Justice Court in Chandler said Hernandez told arresting officers he was on the run for a probation violation and knew he was being followed by officers Wednesday in the mall's parking lot. Detectives from the U.S Marshal Fugitive Task Force and other agencies were at the mall looking for a suspect in a string of recent armed robberies and other crimes.
Police initially mistook him for fugitive Daniel Perez, wanted for shooting at Department of Public Safety officers in Casa Grande on Dec. 10.
After detectives approached Hernandez in the mall parking lot, he left his vehicle and headed for the mall, the report says. As detectives attempted to contact him, he ran into a store, through the mall and then back into the parking lot.
As he continued to run with officers running after him, another detective drove toward him to try to take him into custody. He turned and fired several shots toward the police vehicle, the report says. Bullets went through the side window and side mirror, as well as the roof just above the windshield.
"The officer returned fire through the windshield of his vehicle. Another detective was on foot at the time of the initial shots and Hernandez then fire rounds at the officer on foot,'' the document says.
Hernandez returned to the mall through a store, dropping a magazine from his firearm and then left the store and ran into the interior of the mall, dropping his sweatshirt along the way. He was about to call a taxi to get away when he saw people who he believed to be detectives looking at him. He ran north from the mall and crossed Chandler Boulevard. Detectives saw Hernandez attempt to flag down vehicles as he ran.
"Detectives indicated Hernandez looked directly at them and shook his hand in a motion indicating, "no,'' the report says. "Hernandez then flipped the officers the middle finger and removed a handgun from his waistband.''
He then entered the Baja Fresh.
While in the restaurant he located a key to the safe and removed a large amount of money, according to the records. One of four employees in the store and all the customers escaped. He held two cashiers hostage as a third employee hid inside the store, the report says.
After talking with negotiators, Hernandez turned himself over to police.
Officers said that during the incident, Hernandez had yelled that he would "shoot them in the head."
During the negotiations at the Baja Fresh, he admitted his involvement in the initial shootout at the mall, the documents report.
Suspect in Chandler mall shooting held on $1M bond
Posted: Thursday, January 6, 2011 10:38 am | Updated: 11:28 am, Thu Jan 6, 2011.
Bob Christie, The Associated Press
The suspect police say fired at officers at a mall in Chandler and then held workers at a fast food restaurant hostage now faces a slew of felony charges.
Adam Armando Hernandez Jr. surrendered after an hours-long standoff Wednesday and is being held on $1 million bond. Charges include kidnapping, attempted murder and assault on police officers.
Court records released Thursday show a U.S. Marshals Service task was tracking the 27-year-old when he drove to the mall and officers tried to stop him from entering. He reportedly ran inside, through several stores and outside again, where he opened fire on officers and hit one officer's SUV.
Hernandez then ran back inside the mall, through it and across the street, where he ran inside a Baja Fresh restaurant and held two workers hostage.
Cops never make mistakes? Yea sure! But that's what they want juries to think. In the case the cops identified the wrong guy as the gunman in the shooting at a Chandler mall!
The cops thought the shooter was Daniel Perez, when he actually was Adam Hernandez.
If they can screw up in a major case like this they certainly can screw up in minor cases and charge the wrong person with a crime.
Chandler mall shooting: Police clear up details
Jan. 7, 2011 02:59 PM
The Arizona Republic/12 News Breaking News Team
Within hours after the standoff ended at a Chandler mall this week, authorities said they had confirmed that only one man was involved in the ordeal. The man detectives began surveilling at a Mesa apartment complex Wednesday morning was the same one who surrendered peacefully at about 3 p.m. at a Baja Fresh restaurant north of the mall.
After arresting Adam Hernandez, 27, of Chandler, police said he told them in detail how he exchanged gunfire with officers in the mall parking lot, eluded detectives as they surrounded the mall and fled across Chandler Boulevard to the Baja Fresh. His account helped authorities determine that that Daniel Perez, the man police originally thought they were pursuing, did not take part.
Perez, 24, of Casa Grande, had been arrested in December on suspicion of shooting at Department of Public Safety officers and was mistakenly freed from jail in Pinal County on Dec. 16.
Here are key questions and answers about Wednesdays shootout - what authorities know, and what they are still trying to find out. The "answers" are based on police and court documents.
Question: Why did police think Perez was the man shooting at police in the mall parking lot?
Answer: Detectives from various East Valley agencies had been investigating several armed robberies and other felony crimes involving a man who drove a stolen Kia Sorrento sports utility vehicle. An eyewitness to one of the robberies identified Perez as the robber.
On Wednesday, detectives from the U.S. Marshal Task Force and other agencies learned that the SUV had been spotted at a Mesa apartment complex. Detectives located the vehicle and saw a man who looked like Perez get into it. Detectives followed the vehicle to the Chandler Fashion Center. Based on the eyewitness account to the robbery and that the Kia driver looked like Perez, authorities believed he was the man shooting at police.
Q. When did detectives conclude that Adam Hernandez, not Perez, was the man involved in the shootings?
A. Hernandez' identity was determined before he was arrested at the Baja Fresh, but authorities still believed another suspect might have been in the mall. It remained closed for two more hours as officers continued their search. They found no other suspect, and the mall reopened at 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, it became clear as detectives questioned Hernandez and an assortment of witnesses that he was the same man who had been pursued since detectives spotted the SUV Wednesday morning.
Q. Why do police believe Hernandez began shooting at them if he wasn't the man they were after?
A. Police reports say that during the interview, Hernandez acknowledged that he was on the run from police because of a 2010 probation violation. He had been released from prison in 2009 and would have returned to prison had he been found responsible for the violation. Police also said he had a long record of violent behavior dating back to his childhood.
Q. If Perez wasn't at the mall on Wednesday, where is he?
A. Authorities still don't know, and are continuing their manhunt for him.
Q. Where did the suspect's SUV come from?
A. The vehicle had been stolen at gunpoint from an elderly woman during a robbery on Nov. 18.
Q. A helicopter quickly became involved in the pursuit of Hernandez before he got to the mall. Did it just happen to be in the area?
A. Yes. The helicopter was working an unrelated armed robbery nearby.
Q. Was anybody injured in the shootout?
A. No. Bullets hit an officer's vehicle in the mall parking lot and were fired at another detective pursuing the suspect on foot. [Hmmm so one group of trigger happy cops shot another group of trigger happy cops!] Shots also were fired from the Baja Fresh, but no one was hit. Three hostages taken at the Baja Fresh were released without injury.
Q. What happened to the gun the suspect was shooting?
A. A 40 caliber semi-automatic handgun was located inside the restaurant after Hernandez was taken into custody.
Q. What details in Hernandez' statement made detectives believe he was the only one involved in the shootings?
A. Court documents say he gave investigators a highly detailed account of how he ran from the parking lot to the mall, back to the parking lot, through the mall again, then north across Chandler Boulevard to the Baja Fresh. The account coincided with observations of detectives, who said he yelled at them during the pursuit, threatening to "shoot them in the head" and telling them to "get back, I'm serious." The court records say Hernandez's statement and the officers' observations were confirmed by other witnesses in and near the mall and the restaurant.
The problem ain't "technology", the problem is trigger happy cops who decided to have a shoot out with the suspect in a crowded mall which risked peoples lives!!!!!
Chandler mall shooting: Technology posed challenge in standoff
by Edythe Jensen - Jan. 15, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Technology, a crowded shopping mall and human nature made the frenzied hunt for a gunman in locked-down Chandler Fashion Center on Jan. 5 an unprecedented challenge, police say.
Dozens of 911 calls from untraceable cellphones gave officers conflicting information and few clues about the callers' identities or locations. Although some helped police track the suspect or calm frightened shoppers, many pressed harried dispatchers with non-essential questions about news reports, when the lockdown will end and whether they should cancel lunch plans.
One woman asked for a police escort so she could leave the mall store where she worked. Another reported that friends' Facebook postings said they were hiding from a gunman. A few seconds later, her Facebook friends let her know electronically that it was a hoax. "I think they're being idiots. I'm sorry for wasting your time."
"We have never had a situation of this gravity in the city," Chandler Detective Frank Mendoza said. "There was a peaceful resolution, but we are looking at how things could have been done better."
The harrowing afternoon started when Mesa undercover police officers pursuing Adam Hernandez, 27, followed him into the mall parking lot. It is believed he fired at two officers at the Chandler Fashion Center before he ran across Chandler Boulevard to the Baja Fresh restaurant, where he surrendered after negotiating with a Mesa SWAT member.
For nearly five hours the mall was locked down with more than 200 shoppers inside as police combed the 1.1 million-square-foot facility and sought to verify that the gunman at Baja Fresh was the same man who shot at police outside Sears. At the height of the incident, there were more police than shoppers in the mall, said Christina Lanoue, senior property manager.
The sheer numbers of shoppers, employees and armed officers in a dangerous crime scene involving many police agencies and media outlets posed tremendous challenges for law enforcement, Mendoza said. Add panic, confusion and technology to the mix, and it's easy to understand officers' frustration. In one recorded call during the incident, a Chandler officer referred to the scene as a "circus."
Because most of the calls came from cellphones, 911 operators had to depend on the callers to provide their names and locations. Connections to 911 from landlines automatically show that information, but it doesn't come up from most cellphones, Mendoza said. Some of the mall shoppers and employees talked in frightened whispers and hung up without providing information. Others said they were hiding and didn't want to be noticed by the gunman.
Lyle Mann, executive director of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, said massive changes in technology over the past decade continuously challenge law enforcement. Evolving cellphone technology makes it easier for witnesses to report crimes from the scene, but multiple phone models, carriers and applications prevent efficient 911 tracking.
There also is growing concern about privacy and protection during dangerous crime pursuits.
"Anytime there's a change in technology that impacts the social fabric of the community, police departments have to find ways to use it to their advantage and understand there very well could be disadvantages," Mann said.
News helicopters broadcasting live reports drew calls of concern to police during the Chandler incident because they were showing where police were staked out around the mall and the Baja Fresh where the gunman was believed to be holding hostages.
It wasn't all bad. Smartphones and Facebook were efficient communication tools for mall operators during the lockdown, said Lanoue, the mall property manager. They likely reduced the barrage of calls to police because employees could read updates about the crisis on the facility's Facebook page.
"When you evacuate the entire mall, including the mall office, there is no other way to communicate," she said. "We can access Facebook from our cellphones, and merchants are taught to find information there."
Lanoue said she was able to retrieve messages from office phones remotely during the evacuation and return important calls. The crisis also called attention to weaknesses in mall communications. The center's only system of instantaneously notifying all merchants at once was physically connected to store fixtures.
"If you're not there and have to evacuate, it doesn't do any good," Lanoue said.
Mall officials are discussing upgrades that may allow managers to communicate instantaneously with nearly 200 merchants at once on mobile devices, she said. In the end, a cellphone may have had a big role in ending the standoff. The suspect's mother called 911 and gave police her son's number. Although it is uncertain whether that was the phone on which he talked with the SWAT negotiator, Hernandez surrendered after the conversation.
