Hearing-impaired victim stabs would-be armed robber

Source Link - Hearing-impaired victim stabs would-be armed robber

Phoenix police converged on the Clover Apartments at 17th Avenue and Tonto Street Tuesday morning, taping off two separate crime scenes spread over a couple of blocks.

Investigators are trying to piece it all together, but police said it all started as an armed robbery in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Neighbors tell 3TV the incident might have been a drug deal gone bad. Police, however, have not confirmed that.

According to Sgt. Tommy Thompson of the Phoenix Police Department, a group of hearing-impaired people was hanging out in front of their apartment when an Hispanic man came over and tried to rob them. That man was armed with a gun.

Because of the inherent language barrier, the man wrote the people a note to explain that he was robbing them. That's when one member of the group pulled out a steak knife and went on the offensive, stabbing the man at least twice.

The group scattered. The armed man fired a couple of shots, hitting one of the victims as he was getting into his car to escape.

That wounded man made it down the street before crashing his car into a fence.

The injured gunman went across the street and started knocking on doors, asking residents if he could use the phone to call his mother.

While it's not clear exactly who contacted the police, by the time officers arrived on the scene, the gunman was slumped over in the street about a block away from the initial confrontation.

Both the victim who was shot and the suspect was was stabbed were taken to the hospital. Both were in serious condition and were undergoing surgery. Both are expected to survive.

Thompson said officers are looking for at least three other victims who ran from the scene.