Tribal police officer among two dead and four injured in shooting at Phoenix-area home

A shooting early Saturday morning at a Gila River Indian Community home south of Phoenix killed a tribal police officer and another person and injured a police officer and at least three other people, authorities said.

Details of the 2 a.m. incident remained unclear after a Gila River police statement said officers responded to a 911 call about a disturbance at a home in Santan.

The FBI and tribal police are investigating “a large crime scene,” FBI spokesman Kevin Smith said in an email.

When officers arrived, “they found a large crowd in which several shots had been fired,” the police statement said. In addition, “two officers and four other people were hit by gunfire.”

All six injured people were taken to hospitals, where Officer Joshua Briese and another person, identified as a member of the Gila River community, were pronounced dead.

The wounded officer was not identified but is said to be in “serious but stable” condition following surgery. The names and conditions of other injured people were not immediately released.

Briese has only been a police officer for less than a year and is still in practical training, the department said. Teaya Enos, a spokeswoman for the department, said she could not release any further information.

Officials did not initially provide information on how many police officers and other people were in the house at the time of the shooting, what might have sparked the shooting, whether police fired shots or whether anyone was arrested.

“Nothing hurts more deeply than a life ended too soon,” tribal governor Stephen Roe Lewis said in a statement, mourning “our fallen and injured police officers and every community member affected by such tragic violence.”

“We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure we have a full understanding of what happened here,” Lewis’ statement said.