PD: Melee after woman hit, killed by car in Phoenix

PHOENIX - Phoenix police say a woman was hit and killed Sunday night as she crossed a West Valley street.

Officers ended up making several arrests but not the driver who hit her.

Family members of those arrested say officers overreacted and made a bad situation even worse.

Investigators say as 41-year-old Darlene Brown tried to cross Dunlap near 35th Avenue, a car going westbound hit her around 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Police arrived and tried to save Brown, but her injuries were too severe and she died on the roadway.

"Had a whole bunch of people come to my room and say 'your momma just died, you need to go out there because she just got hit by a car,'" said Dominic Woods, Brown's son.

Woods and others ran to the scene of the accident.

Police said the crowd quickly grew to nearly a hundred people.

Officers claim several people in that crowd became unruly.

"I started wailing out, other people started wailing out, it started a big scene," said Woods. "People went to jail. It was just not a pretty sight."

Investigators say while attempting to take one man into custody he hit the two officers trying to arrest him.

Police claim two other women then tried to free the man by pulling him away from the officers.

Woods told ABC15 that Phoenix police should have been more sympathetic to people who were grieving.

"(Brown) is a cool person, everybody likes her," said Woods. "The way police were acting last night, everybody had the right to act like they did."

Officer James Holmes with the Phoenix Police Department released the following statement to ABC15:

...the suspects behavior not only endangered officers, but also hindered the officers efforts to assist the victim and secure the scene. We understand that people grieve in the wake of tragedy and anger may be a part of that process but it most certainly cannot go to the extent it did last night.