A detention officer with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office was shot and killed by police Monday night after threatening officers in a Gilbert neighborhood.
Officers responded to the area near Recker and Guadalupe roads around 8 p.m. after receiving reports of a man who did not feel well and was acting erratically.
Police reportedly spent 20 minutes working to de-escalate the situation with Joshua Kinnard, but the 37-year-old refused assistance.
As officers went to the front of the home to speak with another resident, Kinnard retrieved a weapon and began threatening police.
Fearing for their lives, officers opened fire on Kinnard. He was pronounced deceased by Gilbert fire crews at the scene.
Kinnard had been with MCSO for six years and was on approved medical leave at the time of the incident, deputies said.
He was an Iraq War veteran who served in the US Marine Corps from 1999 to 2003.
According to officials, no officers involved in the shooting were injured.
The officers involved in the incident have been identified as Officer Putton and Officer Vernon. Both officers have been with Gilbert since 2017. They have been placed on administrative leave with pay.
Neighbors told ABC15 police were also called to the home in recent days. On Monday night, a neighbor says Kinnard was clearly not in the right state of mind.
"He was yelling 'where's my stuff? What's going on?' neighbor Amanda Henning said. "(He) looked very confused. The second I stepped into my house, all of a sudden I hear the shots."
Henning says she helped a young boy who lives at the home after the shooting occurred.
"I believe the police did what they had to do," she said. "I believe everything they did was correct. That they were protecting the neighborhood, that they were protecting those kids, that they were protecting that mom...that man made a very bad mistake."
