One person was injured and at least one other was detained Tuesday after a shooting near 12th and Ajo in Tucson, according to police. The Tucson Police Department said the victim was taken to a local hospital following the shooting, and the investigation remains active.
Details about what led to the shooting have not been released. As reported by KOLD, the Tucson Police Department confirmed that the victim was transported to a local hospital and that at least one person had been detained in connection with the shooting. The outlet reported that the investigation is ongoing, and no further information about the victim's condition or the circumstances surrounding the gunfire has been made public.
The intersection of 12th Avenue and Ajo Way has drawn police attention before. The same outlet's earlier reporting noted that a Tucson police captain said the department had logged roughly 700 to 800 deployments of its POPP program in the area over the course of a year, a tool aimed at addressing persistent crime concerns in the corridor.
The department’s 2024 annual report describes POPP as one part of a wider, place-based response. In its account of west-side policing, officers checked in at designated sites and noted factors that could contribute to crime, while teams also built relationships with residents, businesses and churches and coordinated street outreach with service providers. That account illustrates the department’s broader approach, but does not establish that those partnerships were operating at Tuesday’s scene. The department’s 2024 annual report details those activities.
POPP, or Problem-Oriented Precision Policing, pairs hotspot patrols with problem-solving intended to address conditions behind crime and disorder. TPD has described officers being sent to selected locations every 90 minutes for visible 15-minute visits. In a 2023 review, the department’s Operations Division East said Part I crimes fell by more than 15% and citywide calls for service were down by 1,200; those figures reflect the division’s review, not results specific to the 12th-and-Ajo corridor. TPD’s description of POPP deployments and its review provides that broader context.
Crime Figures Around 12th and Ajo
Police records cited in that earlier report showed 71 crime reports within about a quarter-mile of 12th Avenue and Ajo in February 2021, a number that fell to 46 one year later. A similar pattern showed up in March, when the same records logged 76 reports in March 2021 compared to 47 in March of a later year that wasn't specified in that reporting.
That same report also referenced a separate, earlier shooting at a busy shopping center near 12th Avenue and Ajo, in which a man was wounded and died a few days afterward. Tucson police quickly arrested two 17-year-olds and charged them in that case, according to the report. It is not known whether that incident has any connection to Tuesday's shooting.
Other Violence Near Ajo Way
The neighborhood has seen other serious violence in recent years. The Tucson Police Department previously reported that two people were found fatally shot inside an unoccupied apartment at 1240 W. Ajo Way in October 2023, a separate case with no established link to Tuesday's shooting.
No additional details about Tuesday's shooting, including the identities of those involved or any potential charges, have been released. The Tucson Police Department says the investigation remains ongoing.
