Maricopa County deputy shot and killed

ANTHEM, Ariz. - A Maricopa County sheriff's deputy has been shot and killed while answering a burglary call in Anthem early Sunday.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio identified the deputy as 50-year-old William Coleman, who had been with MCSO for 20 years.

"So very sad," said neighbor Shari Miller Jacobson. "He was just doing his duty and in the act of defending us.  It's not very good news."

Arpaio said the deputy was responding to a burglar alarm at a medical building around 4 a.m. As Coleman and his partner arrived, a man came out of a minivan firing a semi-automatic rifle and hit Coleman under his bullet-proof vest. He was taken to a hospital but doctors could not save him.

"My condolences go out to the officer," said neighbor Linda Johnson. "(The deputies) try hard to work with the residents. We really appreciate them."

The suspect was shot and killed by other deputies. Arpaio says investigators are trying to determine why he opened fire.

Arpaio said Coleman leaves behind a wife and two children, ages 4 and 7. The sheriff says he also has grown children in another state.

"It's hard to hear that," said neighbor Pedro Morales. "I'm very sad to hear that."

Sunday night, Yavapai County Sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn said detectives will meet with MCSO detectives to compare ballistic evidence from a murder scene outside Sedona .

On Friday, a man and woman from New Hampshire were found shot to death with a high-powered rifle in their vehicle at a scenic turnoff along Highway 89A.

D'Evelyn said the two teams will compare the evidence from the Sedona scene and that recovered from Sunday's shooting in Anthem.

They expect to have results of the comparison sometime Monday.