Man dead after police shooting at Walmart in Surprise

SURPRISE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- Authorities say a man is dead after a shooting involving officers at a Walmart parking lot in Surprise Tuesday afternoon. Around 12:20 p.m., officers were called to the store near Grand Avenue and Bell Road. Police arrived, and an employee told them 28-year-old Joseph Martin was trespassing and asked to get him off the property.

Officers found Martin sitting in the backseat of a car with the door open and tried asking him to leave multiple times. Police say Martin refused and became loud, belligerent and uncooperative, so officers asked him to get out of the car. According to investigators, an officer tried to pull Martin out when he yelled, “I have a gun,” and reached under a pile of personal items. Officers then fired at Martin, killing him.

“It was a combination of him yelling, ‘I have a gun,’ and making a furtive gesture under those items towards his waistband and that’s when this happened,” said Jamie Rothschild, Public Information Officer for Surprise Police.

No officers were hurt in the shooting, and police say there is no threat to the community. Surprise police do not know what type of weapon Martin had.

This is the 19th officer-involved shooting in Maricopa County and the 25th in the state in 2023.

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