According to Sgt. Trent Crump, spokesman for the Phoenix Police, the officer who has not been identified, “was doing exactly what we want him to do” when he shot and killed 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon. Friends and family said Brisbon was simply delivering dinner to his children on Tuesday night when the deadly encounter with police happened.
Crump told reporters that the officer and his partner were responding to a burglary call about 6 p.m. Tuesday (8 p.m. ET) when a local resident told them that men in a black sport-utility vehicle were dealing drugs. The license plate number given by the resident matched a vehicle owned by a resident of a block where police were already investigating a report of loud music, Crump said, so the officer approached the SUV, whose driver got out.
When the officer told the driver, later identified as Brisbon, to show his hands, the driver instead put his hands into the waistband of his pants, at which point the officer drew his gun, Crump said. Brisbon began to run away, but the officer chased him down, and they began struggling, Crump said.
“The officer believed he felt the handle of a gun while holding the suspect’s hand in his pocket,” Crump said. Unable to keep his grip on Brisbon’s hand, the officer fired two shots, Crump said. The object in Brisbon’s pocket was later discovered to be a bottle of pain pills.
