Trooper Injured in Trooper-Involved Shooting

On December 19, 2019, at 11:50 PM, an Arizona State Trooper was on patrol in the area of Rural Road just south of the Loop 202 in Tempe. Accompanying the trooper was a citizen observer.  While patrolling the area, the trooper observed a subject knock a street sign into the roadway. Utilizing his speaker, the trooper asked the subject to pick up the street sign. The subject refused and proceeded to walk down the middle of Rural Road.  The subject, later identified as 25 year-old Mohamed Ahmed E A Al-Hashemi, a Qatari national, in the United States on student visa, continued to defy the trooper’s commands and continued to walk down the middle of the roadway. As the subject walked down the roadway, he became wildly demonstrative in his physical behavior and actions. 

As the trooper placed his vehicle in front of the subject to keep the subject from being hit by oncoming traffic, he ordered the subject to “get out of the street.”  The subject refused, instead he charged the trooper’s vehicle and kicked the hood area.  Due to the erratic and threatening behavior of the subject, the trooper exited his vehicle and gave the subject commands to “get on the ground.”  The subject again refused commands, at which time the trooper deployed his taser. The taser proved ineffective, whereupon the trooper attempted a second deployment of the taser. 

Upon the second ineffective deployment of the taser, the subject charged the trooper and violently attacked him. The attack can be characterized as extraordinarily vicious.  Within seconds, the trooper was in a fight for his life. The subject struck the trooper with fists, headbutt and full-kick strikes, knocking him to the ground at least three times. The trooper desperately called for his citizen observer to radio for help.  At one point, the subject acquired the troopers taser and hit him over the head with the weapon.  While the trooper was on the ground, the subject continued to kick the trooper in the head. As the attack continued, the trooper began to feel a loss of consciousness. The trooper knew both his life and the life of the citizen observer in his car were in immediate danger of death. As his last resort the trooper deployed his duty weapon, striking the subject and killing him. 

The trooper was taken to the hospital where he was treated for injuries and released.