It's the 5th fatal shooting in Tucson area in 24 hours
By Dale Quinn and Alexis Huicochea
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A man was shot and killed by a homeowner Thursday night after police said he and two others broke into a South Side home.
The incident was the fifth shooting death in the Tucson area in a 24-hour period.
The home invasion occurred in the 5800 block of Sanderling Drive in Littletown around 9 p.m when the three men forced their way into a residence where a 29-year-old man and his daughter, 2, were inside, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
The homeowner was shot once in the arm by one of the intruders, and he returned fire, killing one, Pacheco said.
All three men ran out of the home, but the wounded man did not make it off of the property, Pacheco said. He was found dead there by police.
The homeowner, who called 911, locked himself and his daughter in a bathroom until officers arrived, Pacheco said.
Police did not release the man's name or age Thursday night. No charges had been filed in connection with his death.
Two of the other unrelated shooting deaths Thursday involved a 5-year-old boy on the Tohono O'odham Reservation who was killed when a gun he was holding accidentally discharged and a man who was killed by a police officer on the West Side.
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Those incidents were preceded by two unrelated homicides that left two men dead.
The two slayings — the first occurred shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday on the North Side and killed 35-year-old Tucsonan Andre D. Donaldson — are not believed to be random violence, Pacheco said.
The other shooting was drug-related, police said. It occurred at about 12:20 a.m. Thursday in a mobile home park in the 5300 block of South Park Avenue, Pacheco said.
Police went to the park, near East Irvington Road, when a manager called and said a bullet had come through his window, Pacheco said.
Police talked to the manager, but they weren't able to find a shooter or victim, Pacheco said.
About eight minutes later, a person called 911 on a cell phone and reported being on the way to a hospital with a shooting victim in the car.
The call came from near Irvington Road and South Sixth Avenue, and police tried to find the car, Pacheco said.
A Department of Public Safety officer made contact with a Honda Civic at West St. Mary's Road near Interstate 10 when the driver may have stopped due to road construction, Pacheco said. It wasn't clear if the DPS officer stopped the Civic as it was speeding to the hospital or if it stopped on its own because of the road work.
The DPS officer called paramedics, who confirmed that a 32-year-old man in the car was dead.
Through Thursday, police continued to investigate the shooting, which they determined happened at the South Side mobile home park. They had not identified any suspects.
In the Wednesday slaying, Donaldson, of the 3200 block of West Cactus Tree Trail, was found lying on the side of the road by a woman walking down Laguna Street near North Stone Avenue, Pacheco said.
The woman found Donaldson a block north of Glenn Street, Pacheco said. She ran across the street and asked a resident to call 911. Paramedics responded and took the man to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators believe the shooting took place where the man was found, though there were no reports of a shooting in the area. No arrests had been made by Thursday morning, and no suspects had been identified.
Pacheco said investigators still were working to determine what Donaldson was doing in the area.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME.
