Murder-Suicide Near Tempe, AZ

Two people were killed Tuesday morning near Tempe, Arizona, in what police believe was a murder-suicide, according to a police spokesman.

Police said David Joseph Engel, 40, fatally shot his estranged wife, 45-year-old April Louise Engel, and then turned the gun on himself at an apartment near University Drive and Greenfield Road in Mesa, writes AZ Central.

Police said say Joseph Engel had recently been served divorce papers by April, according to YourWestValley.

AZ Central reports that the couple had a history of domestic violence that started in 2008, when David Engel was arrested on suspicion of assaulting April Engel, police say.

http://www.yourwestvalley.com/valleyandstate/article_3699b762-0985-11e5-ab44-5b6c2da8ce54.html

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2015/06/02/mesa-police-murder-suicide-greenfield-abrk/28346387/

http://www.kpho.com/story/29215404/estranged-couple-dead-in-shooting-at-mesa-apartment-complex

Tucson.com: Need For Adult Diapers Is Huge In Arizona

According to Tucson.com, some elderly and disabled adults who need incontinence supplies in Arizona can now get them at no cost, thanks to a legal victory six years in the making.

Advocates celebrate the news, but some patients and residents are finding it doesn’t apply to them.

Incontinence briefs are covered only for those who qualify for Arizona’s Long Term Care System (ALTCS).

That means they must earn no more than $2,199 a month and be disabled to the point of needing “a nursing home level of care.”

“It’s great that those on ALTCS will be eligible to receive the incontinence supplies.  However, there is still a huge gap between those that are eligible for the program and the real incontinence item need in Southern Arizona,” said Claudette Langley, the outreach coordinator for the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona.

Robyn Molk hoped her elderly aunt would qualify, but the 91-year-old woman earns $35 a month over the cap.

It’s an added stress for her aunt, who already has needs that take up money, and time.

So Molk is chipping in and searching for help covering the expense, which used to be just a couple of adult diapers a day but now is up to several — totaling $250 a month.

“There are so many people on the cusp, especially now that people are living longer,” Molk said. “There are so many who could really use the help, but they are caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s just unfair.”

Oops…Phoenix Police Officer Shoots Dead Unarmed Black Man

According to Reuters, a Phoenix police officer recently shot to death an unarmed black man during a struggle.  Authorities said the officer supposedly believed the individual had a gun.

The Phoenix Police Department said Rumain Brisbon, 34, was sitting in a black Cadillac SUV outside a convenience store on Tuesday evening, and two witnesses told the officer the occupants of the vehicle were selling drugs.

Phoenix police said in a statement that its officer called for backup, and then saw Brisbon appear to remove something from the car’s back seat.

It said the officer, a seven-year veteran of the department, gave him commands to show his hands, and then Brisbon “placed one or both hands in his waistband area” and fled.  The officer chased and caught up with him, it said, and during a struggle the policeman thought he felt a gun in Brisbon’s pocket.

“The officer gave the suspect several commands to get on the ground but he refused to comply, yelling profanities at the officer,” said the police statement issued on Wednesday.

A resident then opened an apartment door and both men stumbled into her home, it said, adding that the officer was unable to keep a grip on the suspect’s hand.

“…the officer fired two rounds striking Brisbon in the torso,” said the statement.

Backup officers began CPR until the Phoenix Fire Department arrived and treated Brison at the scene. He later was pronounced dead.

Police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said the item being held in Brisbon’s pocket was a pill vial containing a number of oxycodone tablets.

“All I know is I ain’t never seen him do a transaction,” said Brandon Dickerson, who claimed he was with Brisbon that night. “Only thing I know is he got some food, he went to take his food to the kids, and I ain’t seen him no more.”

Police said Brisbon’s girlfriend lives at the apartment with children.

Police found a semiautomatic handgun and a jar containing what is believed to be marijuana inside the vehicle.

“I don’t care what they found in his car,” said the Rev. Jarett Maupin, a local civil rights activist. “He wasn’t armed and didn’t have marijuana on his body … when this incident happened.”

Crump said Brisbon has a criminal record.  However, it is not clear why selling drugs would warrant such drastic action.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Phoenix-police-on-the-scene-of-officer-involved-shooting-284550301.html#ixzz3KyvSNFtk

Arizona’s SB 1070 Is A ‘Family-Buster’

A woman with a pending immigration visa spent five days in jail away from her children for a traffic violation.  She and the ACLU are filing a lawsuit.

It is the first lawsuit over an arrest stemming from Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070.  The ACLU’s description of Maria Cortes’ arrest by Pinal County sheriff’s deputies in 2012 sounds like what 1070 opponents feared would take place under Arizona’s immigrant-hunting law: A “cracked windshield” led to Cortes’ getting separated from her children and detained by immigration authorities for five days.

“That arrest is not based on any probable cause of having committed any crime . . . it was based on what [the deputy] perceived or believed her immigration status to be,” ACLU attorney Victoria López tells New Times.

According to the ACLU lawsuit, Cortes, an Eloy resident, had applied for a visa that’s granted to certain survivors of crimes. Cortes’ husband is described as abusive, and she had helped authorities in his prosecution.

Cortes’ visa application was pending when she was pulled over by a PCSO deputy in September 2012, and she told the deputy she didn’t have a driver’s license.  Cortes was handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car as the deputy investigated her immigration status, and eventually was transported to a Customs and Border Patrol office in Casa Grande.

She was cited for three civil traffic violations before being turned over to officials at the CBP office, where she was detained for five days — although the PCSO deputy’s report indicated that Cortes had been cited and released, according to the lawsuit.

“When the officer who stopped me asked if I had a visa, I offered to show him a copy of my pending U-visa application that I keep in the glove compartment of the car but he said he wasn’t interested in that,” Cortes says in a statement issued by the ACLU.

“They put me in the police car, never told me why they were taking me or where I was going, which really worried me because I didn’t know what would happen to my children–the five days I spent detained were a nightmare for me.”

López says two parts of SB 1070 were in play during this arrest, including section 2(b), which allows local police to investigate a person’s immigration status, and section 2(d), which allows police to hand over unauthorized immigrants to federal authorities.

“It is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States,” the lawsuit says. “Therefore, Defendants’ belief or suspicion that Plaintiff was unlawfully present in the United States, or desire to investigate her immigration status, did not provide constitutional justification for detaining Plaintiff.”