PHOENIX (Reuters) - A Phoenix police officer died on Thursday of wounds he sustained while exchanging gunfire with a burglary suspect, authorities said.
Officer David Glasser, 35, was pronounced dead at a hospital a day after the violent confrontation in the driveway of a residence that left the suspect dead at the scene.
“We lost a hero, we lost an outstanding member of our community, a father and a great police officer,” Phoenix Police Chief Joe Yahner told reporters at a news conference, his voice choking with emotion.
Police said officers responded to a burglary in progress call by a relative of the suspect at about 3 p.m. and approached the suspect’s car in the driveway, unaware that he was seated inside, Yahner said. Glasser was shot by the suspect from inside the vehicle.
The officer was taken to the hospital where he died of his wounds.
Police said the suspect, whose name has not been released, was shot and killed inside his vehicle.
Glasser, who was married with two young children, had worked around the nation’s sixth-largest city and was assigned to a neighborhood enforcement team that deals with community issues.
(Reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jonathan Oatis)