Sudanese teenager shot & killed after he stabbed Pima deputy's face, spine with scissors

A 17-year-old Sudanese boy was shot and killed after he attacked a Pima County sheriff's deputy with a pair of scissors, seriously injuring him during an altercation Saturday evening in a neighborhood on Tucson's far West Side, authorities said.

On Monday, the Pima Regional Critical Incident Team announced that Zakareya Ibrahim was fatally shot after he attacked Deputy Eduardo Toral, who has been with the Pima County Sheriff's Department for one year.

The incident began around 6:30 p.m., when an unidentified male called 911 and made several threats, including saying, "I want to kill all you... I have scissors," officials said.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department Communications Center dispatched deputies to the 3900 block of S. Rocky Peak Ct., a neighborhood in Tucson Estates near South Kinney Road and West Ajo Highway, where they encountered an "unidentified male," later identified as Ibrahim.

As the first deputy drove up to the scene, Ibrahim threw a rock at a marked patrol SUV driven by Toral.

The deputy stopped in the roadway, and Ibrahim walked toward the vehicle, officials said. Toral remained in his vehicle, and gave several commands, including asking "multiple times" what was in Ibrahim's hands. As the deputy tried to get out of his car, Ibrahim attacked him, stabbing Toral multiple times in the face and shoulder,  and severely injuring his spinal cord, officials said.

Deputy Taylor Dunn, a three-year veteran of PCSD, arrived and saw Ibrahim's attack and fired his weapon, shooting and killing the teenager, authorities said.

Officials did not indicate how many times Dunn fired, or how many times Ibrahim was shot.

Additional deputies responded the scene, and rendered medical aid to both Ibrahim and Toral.

Ibrahim was pronounced dead at the scene; Toral was taken to a nearby hospital, officials said.

Social media posts indicated that Ibrahim and his parents, with whom he lived, were refugees from Sudan.

At the beginning of March, officials announced the newly-formed Pima County Regional Critical Incident Team, or PRCIT. The team includes around 60 investigators from nine police departments in the county, including PCSD, Tucson Police Department, Oro Valley Police Department, Marana Police Department, Pasqua Yaqui Police Department, Sahuarita Police Department, and the South Tucson Police Department. The team also includes the University of Arizona Police Department and the Pima Community College Police Department.

PRCIT has been tasked to investigate major incidents, including shootings, untimely deaths, and anything "that requires law enforcement to be a little bit more transparent with our community," Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. Officials said that the new organization will add "transparency" to the process of investigations, and will ask officials from a separate agency to investigate incidents.

As part of the PRCIT, the Tucson Police Department will review this latest incident, officials said. Meanwhile, PCSD said it will conduct a "separate, but parallel, administrative investigation to examine" Toral's actions.