A man wielding an AK-47 was fatally shot by Chandler police officers after attempting a home invasion and subsequently leading police on a chase, according to official reports. FOX 10 Phoenix noted that the incident began early in the morning on August 21 when the suspect, now identified as Enrique Gress, tried to break into a house near Frye Road and Windstream Place.
The confrontation escalated when Gress hit a police SUV with his car and fled, leading to a short pursuit which ended when his car collided with another vehicle Gress then exited his vehicle with the firearm in the CVS parking lot, and after ignoring police commands and allegedly pointing the gun at officers, he was shot and declared dead at the scene; "Officers pursued the suspect for a short time before his car was involved in a collision with an uninvolved witness’ vehicle at the intersection of Pecos and McQueen," Chandler Police spokesperson Ryan Cody told FOX 10.
In a follow-up by KTAR News, it was revealed that the Mesa Police Department (MPD), leading the investigation, discovered a drum magazine attached to the rifle Gress carried as well as a handgun, additional firearms, body armor, ammunition, drugs, and cash in his car. The MPD also confirmed that Gress fired one shot from the rifle during the encounter, with a casing at the scene matching his weapon.
A neighbor, known only as Stacey, expressed her distress about the incident to FOX 10 Phoenix and stated, "I can’t believe it. It’s frustrating things happen in the state. You don’t know what’s happening and if it happens, and you’re just frustrated." Gress did not have any known connection to the home he attempted to invade, and the investigation by the East Valley Critical Incident Response Team is still ongoing, with Mesa Police piecing together the precise details of the shooting officers fired until Gress no longer posed a threat, having reportedly pointed the AK-47 at law enforcement previously to being neutralized.
