AZ deputy shot by illegal

[justashooter 430]

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/30/arizona.deputy.shot/index.html?hpt=T1

(CNN) -- A sheriff's deputy in central Arizona was shot Friday afternoon by a suspected drug trafficker, authorities said.

The Pinal County deputy, who was not immediately identified, contacted authorities after being wounded in the desert, saying he had been shot by an illegal immigrant with an AK-47, said Lt. Tammy Villar, a sheriff's spokeswoman.

The deputy radioed that he had encountered five men, some wielding long guns and handguns, and said they were carrying a large amount of marijuana.

At one point the deputy lost radio contact with authorities, leading to a search by foot and by air for him and the shooter, according to CNN affiliate KNXV. Video from the scene shows that the deputy was located while sitting in desert brush, surrounded by cactus. He was able to walk to a helicopter that airlifted him to a hospital.

A spokeswoman at Casa Grande Regional Medical Center confirmed that the deputy was being treated there Friday evening. He was in good condition with stable vital signs, conscious and comfortable, she said.

KNXV: Deputy stopped five suspects

The deputy was shot in the left abdomen and suffered a superficial wound, law enforcement sources said.

The search for the shooter continued into the evening.

The shooting comes amid a national debate over Arizona's tough new immigration law, which allows police to demand proof of legal residency. Arizona lawmakers say the law is needed because the federal government has failed to enforce border security with Mexico, allowing more than 450,000 illegal immigrants to move into the state.

KPNX: Deputy expected to survive

Video: Deputy shot in Arizona RELATED TOPICS

Arizona Immigration

Shootings

Pinal County is between Phoenix and Tucson and has been described as a key transit point for illegal immigrants and drug traffickers. Sheriff Paul Babeu said an estimated 80 percent of illegal immigrants pass through his county along the way to other locations.

Earlier this week, a CNN crew spent 12 hours on patrol with Pinal County deputies. In that time, the deputies captured more than 50 suspected illegal immigrants and about 2,000 pounds of marijuana.

Deputies in the department routinely patrol for illegal immigrants and smugglers, and it is not uncommon for them to be in the field alone, officials said. It was not immediately clear what led the deputy to engage with the shooter Friday.

The shooting is sure to heat up the debate around the new Arizona law. Critics say the law is unconstitutional and will lead to racial profiling, which is illegal. But Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and others who support the law say it does not involve profiling or other illegal acts and will cut down on illegal immigration.

"Frankly this is just a very horrible story, but we should not generalize," Alfonso Aguilar, former chief of the U.S. Citizenship Office, told CNN's Rick Sanchez when news of Friday's shooting broke. "We should focus on the criminality of the drug traffickers ... not scapegoat undocumented immigrants who do not pose any threat to society."

Brewer on Friday signed a bill that makes changes to the immigration law, saying the changes will ease concerns about racial profiling.

The law, which will go into effect in 90 days, has already drawn at least two lawsuits and condemnation from the Mexican government and other Latin American nations. Prominent entertainers, including Shakira and Linda Ronstadt, also have spoken against the law. Some critics are calling for a boycott of Arizona, urging tourists to stay away and that no one do business with companies in the state.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Hey, those illegals are just here to work!

Leave them alone!!!

[Ban Hammer 12,836]

The deputy radioed that he had encountered five men, some wielding long guns and handguns, and said they were carrying a large amount of marijuana.

so that's why the libs are against cracking down, they'll lose their supply!

[Obama 2012 1,714]

so that's why the libs are against cracking down, they'll lose their supply!

Mexican dope sucks though... why would anyone want it?

Get it from BC if you want the good stuff in America.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Illegal aliens are law breaking scum.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Hey Steve, yo buddies want in! Lil bit O cheese dude! Give up some of your lawn fo the bruthas!

[scandal 951]

Here's a really sad story. A decorated veteran just home 2 days from combat duty in Afghanistan, and he gets killed in the line of duty as a law enforcement officer by a piece-ofshit born-in-the-USA scumbag. Unless somehow you think that "James Lacy Chaffin, 30" is an illegal alien.

RIP, Ian Deutch.

Slain Nevada deputy was just back from Afghanistan

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Ian Deutch survived a recent tour of duty in Afghanistan, identifying Taliban targets for artillery strikes. But he didn't make it through his second day back on the job as a rural Nevada sheriff's deputy.

Deutch was gunned down Monday by a man wielding an assault rifle in a casino parking lot about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. The death of the decorated Nevada Army National Guardsman and law enforcement veteran left those who knew him stunned Tuesday.

"The irony of spending a year overseas in a combat zone and then to come back and have this happen is, you know, tragic," said Lt. Col. Scott Cunningham, a Las Vegas resident and commanding officer of Deutch's guard unit.

Deutch, 27, a staff sergeant, and his older brother, Richard Deutch, a master sergeant, were among 752 soldiers with the 1st Squadron, 221st Calvary who returned home in March. Some members of the Wildhorse squadron suffered casualties but none was killed during their assignment in Afghanistan's Laghman province.

Ian Deutch was a meritorious service medal winner, a squad leader and a forward artillery observer who identified Taliban targets for artillery strikes outside combat outpost Nagil, Cunningham said.

"He's one of those guys, his full-time job is a police officer and his part-time job is a soldier," Cunningham told The Associated Press. "He's always been out there trying to help people and make a contribution to society.

"What a first-rate guy he was. What a sense of loss this is."

Deutch's mother told the Las Vegas Review-Journal she was devastated by her son's death.

"He was finally safe. In our country. And somebody here kills him," Suzy Deutch said.

Deutch's sister, Samantha Deutch of Las Vegas, said her brother was married, with a 5-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old stepson.

Richard Deutch is also a Nye County sheriff's deputy, but had not yet returned to work and was not involved in the shooting, Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said.

"His brother is devastated," she said. "They'd been together as deputies and as soldiers."

Ian Deutch was driving with a field training officer when they responded after gunfire was first reported Monday at a home a short distance from Terrible's Lakeside Casino&RV Park, DeMeo said. Deputies diverted to the casino after the shooter's girlfriend told police dispatchers she was seeking safety there. The woman was not wounded.

DeMeo called the shooting that killed Deutch "an unprovoked attack."

"The deputies just pulled up. He was just getting out of the driver's side when the guy opened fire," the sheriff told AP.

DeMeo identified the slain gunman as James Lacy Chaffin, 30.

The other deputy who arrived with Deutch in a marked sheriff's department pickup truck escaped injury. A third deputy arriving in another vehicle fired four shots, killing the gunman, DeMeo said.

Deutch was wearing a bulletproof vest, but DeMeo said at least one shot from the assault rifle pierced his body armor. He was flown by medical helicopter to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he underwent surgery but died late Monday.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons has ordered state flags to be lowered to half-staff Saturday during Deutch's funeral services.

DeMeo said the slain deputy was a six-year sheriff's department veteran and a police K9 handler in the department. Nye County has 108 sworn deputies a county of more than 18,000 square miles - almost as large as the states of New Hampshire and Vermont combined.

"He loved his family, he loved his job, he loved the military and he loved his dog," said DeMeo, himself a former K9 handler.

"I told him last week,'I would clone you if I could.' He laughed," DeMeo said. "This is having a big impact on everyone he worked with."