2 dead in police helicopter crash as officers responded to 'active shooter'
A police helicopter crashed Wednesday night, killing two people aboard, as authorities responded to an "active shooter," who was firing at officers from the roofs of multiple homes in the Flagstaff area, officials in Arizona said.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety was providing "tactical air support," at the time of the crash, Flagstaff police said in a news release. The two people aboard were a pilot and a trooper/paramedic. Their identities have not been released.
Officials have not said if the helicopter was fired on before it crashed or what may have caused it to go down. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will help investigate the cause of the crash.
At a news conference Thursday morning, officials in Flagstaff said police initially responded to a domestic violence call at around 8:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
When they arrived at the scene, they were talking to the victim, when they were fired upon by the suspect from behind the house with a semi-automatic rifle, leading officers to return fire, officials said.
The suspect then climbed on a roof and for nearly 2 hours the suspect fired at officers while jumping from roof to roof of multiple different homes, officials said. Overall, police said he fired dozens rounds at officers and into nearby homes.
The suspect suffered a gunshot wound in an exchange of gunfire with officers and was taken into custody at about 10:20 p.m. and is being treated at a Flagstaff hospital, officials said.
No one else was injured in the gunfire, officials said.
