A call about an armed man making threats in a Mesa neighborhood ended with a fatal police shooting, authorities said.
The shooting happened near the intersection of Jensen and Spring streets in Mesa on Aug. 31, according to Mesa police spokesperson Detective Laura Cervantes.
Police responded to a call around 8:20 p.m. regarding a man making threats with a gun in his waistband, Cervantes said. Officers had previously responded to similar calls regarding the same man, she said.
The man refused to cooperate with police, Cervantes said. While officers were attempting to get him outside to speak with them, a motorcyclist got into a traffic collision with a police vehicle that was on scene responding to the call about the man with a gun. The motorcyclist was not
involved in the original incident, according to Cervantes.
The man was then spotted over a brick wall holding a firearm, at which point a police officer fired his gun. The man was found to be dead when officers approached him to detain him, Cervantes said.
He had not yet been identified, as of Sept. 1.
The Gilbert Police Department was investigating the incident as part of the East Valley Incident Response Team, a multi-agency task force to investigate officer-related shootings and the use of force.
There have been at least 57 police shootings in Arizona so far in 2026, with at least 31 of them fatal.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mesa police spotted armed man over a brick wall. He ended up dead
