Search for suspects continues in PCSO deputy shooting

PINAL COUNTY, AZ -- Pinal County authorities say they are still searching for suspects in last week's shooting of a sheriff's deputy.

At a news conference Tuesday night, county Sheriff Paul Babeu said his staff was "still trying to connect the dots" after 53-year-old deputy Louie Puroll was wounded while on patrol in the desert south of Phoenix last Friday evening.

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office released recordings of the emergency calls Puroll made after being shot.

"Get me some help," Puroll said to an operator. "I've been hit, I've been hit, I've been hit."

Puroll used his cell phone to make the calls for help. Police radio service is known to be spotty in the area desert area where the deputy was injured.

On the recordings, an operator can be heard saying, "OK, Louie, are you OK?"  The deputy responds, "Hell no I'm not OK, I've been shot, tell them to hurry up."

Babeu says Puroll fired 46 rounds in a shootout with a group of drug smugglers after the veteran deputy came across a stash of marijuana bales near Interstate 8.

"There's at least two guys with AK's," Puroll said during the emergency call. Several gunshots can be heard in the background while Puroll talks to the operator. "I may have gotten one of them, but I got to get off the phone and shut up, I just want to let you know where I'm at, I'm going to try and stay here, there's brush all around me."

Puroll was treated and released for two superficial wounds at a Casa Grande hospital and authorities released pictures of the wounds Tuesday.

Authorities say 17 undocumented immigrants were arrested during a search for suspects after Friday's shooting.

Pinal County Sheriff's Lt. Tamatha Villar said Saturday morning that three of those in custody matched the description given by Puroll to investigators at the scene.

They were questioned but weren't believed to have been the actual shooters, Villar said.

According to Villar, Puroll was patrolling the desert alone when he found bales of marijuana and was confronted by five suspected undocumented immigrants around 4:30 p.m. Two were apparently armed with rifles.

At some point during the gun battle, Puroll was hit in the back, the bullet tearing out a chunk of flesh.

Puroll used his cell phone to call dispatchers for help, setting off a frantic hour-long search for the deputy in the remote desert, Villar said.

"I've been shot, I've been shot, I've been shot," he said on his first call. He later asked dispatchers to tell his wife he loved her. At the time he wasn't sure if he would make it out alive.

Babeu also released pictures on Tuesday of masked men, wearing camouflage holding AK47 guns seen in the desert over the past several months. They wanted to underscore what they are facing when they deal with smugglers.

"They are heavily armed paramilitary groups ready to fire," Babeu said. "It's getting worse."

Just after 5:30 p.m. Friday, Air15 video showed a Department of Public Safety helicopter crew landing in the desert and walking the wounded deputy to the chopper.

YOU CAN WATCH THE RESCUE IN THE ATTACHED VIDEO WINDOW

Puroll, a 15-year veteran with the department, was taken to Casa Grande Regional Medical Center after he was grazed by a bullet above his left kidney. He was released from the hospital Friday night and is expected to return to work this week.

Several hundred officers from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, assisted by several helicopters, scoured a 10-square-mile area of rugged desert about 50 miles south of Phoenix on Saturday. The search was called off as darkness fell.

The U.S. Border Patrol searched areas outside the perimeter and made additional arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants. "Their numbers are much, much higher," Villar said.