Police used shields to rescue baby during Phoenix standoff

PHOENIX (AP) — SWAT officers used ballistic shields as they rescued a baby girl during a standoff with a gunman who earlier shot and wounded five patrol officers, including four while they moved to take the baby to safety, Phoenix police said.

Initial accounts of the incident Friday that left the gunman and a woman believed to be his ex-girlfriend dead and the baby unharmed hadn’t explained how police rescued the baby after the first attempt was thwarted.

All of the five wounded officers were expected to survive, police said. Four additional officers had minor injuries after being struck by shrapnel or ricocheting bullets, police said.

In a statement released late Friday, police also said that after he shot one officer, the gunman tried unsuccessfully to drive out of the garage of the home where he later barricaded himself and was found dead inside hours later.

The getaway attempt was thwarted because a parked patrol car blocked his vehicle, the police statement said. “When he was unsuccessful, he went back into the house.”

Police on Friday identified the dead suspect as 36-year-old Morris Richard Jones III,

Federal court records showed Jones had a criminal history dating back to at least 2007, including convictions in Oklahoma for using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and possessing a firearm after a felony conviction and in Arizona for conspiring to transport, for profit, people who were in the country illegally.

The woman who died at a hospital after being found critically wounded in the home after the standoff ended has been identified as Shatifah Lobley, 29 of Phoenix, and family members told police that the baby was a 1-month-old child of Lobley and Jones, police spokesman Sgt. Andy Williams said Saturday.

Lobley was shot before police arrived at the scene, Williams said.

Still unknown was whether Jones killed himself or died from shots fired by police.

Police went to the home in response to a 911 call reporting the shooting of a woman.

The first officer was ambushed and shot as he approached the door but “was able to back away and find cover,” the statement said.