A Phoenix police officer was shot and seriously injured early Wednesday while making a traffic stop, and the shooter or shooters are on the loose, city police said.
The officer was shot more than once shortly after initiating a traffic stop in central Phoenix around 2:45 a.m., near 12th Street and Campbell Avenue, Phoenix police Sgt. Jonathan Howard said.
“Thank goodness he was wearing his (body armor) vest,” police Chief Joseph Yahner told reporters, adding that rounds struck the armor.
The officer, whose name wasn’t released, was at a hospital in serious condition Wednesday morning but is expected to recover, police said.
Police said the shooter or shooters fled, but the vehicle involved in the traffic stop was found abandoned nearby.
Yahner didn’t say what the stop was for, or what might have led to the shooting. He said investigators were tracking down leads; no suspects were immediately named.
The officer did not return fire, Howard said.
Howard said investigators have no information linking Wednesday’s shooting to a series of shootings at vehicles along Interstate 10 in downtown Phoenix and elsewhere in the Arizona capital.