Police & Law Enforcement

Will this victim who died of heat exposure …     Marcia Powell…

  A man who stole a pipe from a Mesa smoke shop slammed his car into a manager who had tried to stop him, police say. The incident began on Saturday just before 3 p.m. when the man, who wasn’t identified immediately by police, walked out of DJ’s Smoke Shop, 2034…

  The Arizona Department of Public Safety should open a farmer’s market. This morning, the agency told us about a truck driver busted with 508 pounds of pot hidden with watermelons. A few minutes ago, DPS announced it had made an even bigger produce-related seizure on Monday: More than 5,000 pounds of marijuana…

  Police are warning women to take precautions when out and about after a Phoenix resident was brutalized in a field near 7th Avenue and Indian School. The 47-year-old woman had been walking through alleyways on her way home from work about 2:30 a.m. Thursday when a man grabbed her, hauled her into a…

It was a close shave for two people shot and wounded last night in Mesa barber shop. Cops say a guy walked into Horacio Styles, 724 E. University, just after 9 p.m. — when the shop usually closes. He “exchanged words with employees and customers.” Then he pulled out a…

A Mesa father and engineer has pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI about his involvement in a charity organization tied to Hamas. Between 1994 and 1997, Akram Musa Abdallah, 54, raised funds for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the federal government accuses of…

Phoenix police announced the arrest Tuesday of a person suspected of shining a laser beam at airplanes flying into Sky Harbor International Airport, as well as a police helicopter.Common sense suggests this kind of crime could cause a full-blown catastrophe, though we’re not aware of any case in which an…

A 39-year-old Douglas man was arrested after being stopped on Interstate 10 near Benson while hauling a half-ton of pot. The Department of Public Safety says “Manny,” a narcotics detection dog, found the bundles of buds in a false compartment in the trailer.Authorities have been seeing a general increase in…

This is the modern version of digging for treasure:   Someone used a backhoe early this morning to claw through a Mesa Walgreen’s and drag out the store’s ATM. The machine then made quick work of the ATM, smashing it apart until the cashbox was freed. A news release by…

  Police are hunting have arrested a suspect in a SUV who shot a photo radar van operator Sunday night. (SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST).  The 51-year-old victim, Doug Georgianni, had worked for the photo enforcement company Redflex as a “driver-technician” for only three months, according to a news…

Warning: Extreme badass on the loose. The Arizona Department of Public Safety warns that Angel J. Valenzuela, 37, was on the run yesterday near 27th Avenue, between Bethany Home and Glendale Avenue, after vowing to shoot at any cop who tried to take him back to prison. The agency says  its troopers tried…

A 48-year-old former teacher at Tempe’s Marcos de Niza high school is at the center of an apparent love triangle with two young students that ended in murder.Accounts from court records state that Sixto Balbuena, 20, arrived unexpectedly at the home of his “girlfriend,” teacher Tamara Hofmann last Friday. After…

Meet the Beatle. This funky cat donned a wig to rob the Chase Bank near Indian Bend and Scottsdale Road yesterday afternoon, say Scottsdale police on their Web site. No weapon was seen — the bloke just passed a demand note to the teller, who gave him some cash. He…

When a newspaper gets a good quote, sometimes you don’t know it’s good until much later. Such is the case with Andrew Paparella Jr., owner of Andrew’s New American at Citrus Cafe in Chandler, who’s been accused by Chandler police of stealing his customers’ credit numbers in a scheme to…

The pair of robbers entered the credit union suddenly, yelling at employees, waving a gun.Police say the robbery of the Sun West Federal Credit Union yesterday was more like Point Break than the average pass-a-note-and-run kind of bank stick-up.But it was also like America’s Dumbest Criminals: The gang took a…

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is throwing the book at two 18-year-old girls who made bomb threats at their Tempe high school, Corona Del Sol. Laurin Godson (mugshot on the left) and Lauren Tamburrelli (on the right) were charged by Thomas’ office late last month for hoaxing a terrorist attack, a class…

  Kids aren’t supposed to talk to strangers. And, these days, apparently, strangers aren’t supposed to talk to kids. According to media reports today, a guy who asked a few kids some questions about tree swings — prompting police involvement — was actually interested in tree swings. Go figure. Initial coverage of…

Detroit homicide detectives worked alongside Mesa police last week, with some help from the U.S. Marshal’s Office, in capturing a fugitive who allegedly gunned down four people.In September of 2007, Edward Winston and another man, Mark DeKhaira Moore, charged out of a vacant field in Motor City, running up with…

Hey, guys, how about a game of basketball?By the way, we’ll take your ball — and your phones.From Mesa police:Narrative      On 03.26.09 at about 1918 hours, officers were dispatched to the 637 W. Grove Circle reference an armed robbery that had just occurred. Investigation at the scene revealed…