Sergeant Mark Clark, the spokesman for the Scottsdale Police department, said explaining the shooting history of one of his officers can be difficult.
"We're scratching our heads because we're absolutely amazed," said Clark.
Officer James Peters has been involved in more officer-involved shootings than any other officer on duty in the state of Arizona. A total of six. And in four of those cases, Peters fired a bullet that killed a suspect.
"As a matter of fact, there's no one at the Scottsdale police department that isn't absolutely astonished that this officer has been involved, used deadly force, so many times when a lot of officers have gone through their whole careers and not have to use deadly force," said Sgt. Clark.
In his first incident, Peters shot at a suspect in a domestic SWAT situation, but missed. That suspect recovered from other wounds, according to police.
But the officer's aim improved. In this next three shootings, he shot and killed a disbarred lawyer who was pacing a can with a shotgun, a suspect who reportedly tried to attack another officer with a pipe and a gunman holding a hostage in a supermarket.
"The suspect had the manager -- something like you might see in a movie -- had the manager around the neck with the gun pointing to his head and was backing out the door," said Clark.
In all of those cases, multiple police and county attorney investigations ruled Peters' actions were justified. He was even heralded as a hero and was the focus of an article in an industry newsletter found on policeone.com.
Yet, a CBS5 source who has investigated Peters before and who asked to remain anonymous, questions not only Peters' record, but also the ability of the department to remain unbiased.
In fact, the Scottsdale police department settled with a shooting victim's family out of court in the officer's fifth shooting after Peters and others cut the power to a suspect's home and then fatally shot him when he came out with a gun to investigate, according to police.
"Officers were responding to being shot at in that particular incident. It's important to note that, although you guys know that there was a settlement. There certainly was facts that were beyond the legal and certainly financial considerations of the city and their legal department," said Clark.
On Wednesday night, Peters and another officer opened fire on Jimmy Hammack, a bank robbery suspect, after they say Hammack jumped in his truck and drove right at them. Hammack is in critical condition. If the investigation into this latest shooting fits the pattern of all the others, however, Peters will be cleared within a week and back on the street.
"It's just one of those things where I don't know if we're ever going to be able to explain it. I don't know if you are ever going to be able to explain it. It happened. Every single case, this officer that the investigations were completed on, he reacted exactly the way officers are trained to react," said Clark.
Sergeant Clark said his department has reviewed it's procedures to see if there is anything Scottsdale is doing that might regularly put Peters in harms way, but said they found nothing. To date, Officer Peters has passed every psychological evaluation, and his superiors said despite his luck, he is more than fit to serve. The Wednesday night shooting is currently being investigated by Phoenix police.
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