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Scottsdale standoff ends with man shot
BY ALIA BEARD RAU
TRIBUNE

Scottsdale police shot a man early Sunday after he aimed a high-powered rifle at them, officials said — marking the East Valley's ninth officer-involved shooting of the year.

Albert H. Redford, 44, was shot three times in the chest and arm by Scottsdale SWAT officers, said Scottsdale officer Scott Reed. Redford was taken to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn hospital and is expected to survive.

Redford's wife, Karla Redford, called police at 8:40 p.m. Saturday, saying her husband was threatening her with a knife, Reed said. After officers arrived at the home at 9015 E. Conquistadores Drive, they found the woman and her children, ages 11 and 14, down the street.

"She said she fled the house with the kids because he said he was going into their bedroom to get his guns," Reed said.

Redford refused to come out of the house or talk to police, and SWAT was called in, Reed said. For about three hours, SWAT surrounded the house while Redford went in and out of his house and the balcony that overlooks the garage in front.

"He was yelling at officers and refused to participate in negotiations," Reed said. "The whole time he was drinking beer from bottles on the balcony."

Then Redford came out about 12:30 a.m. with a high-powered rifle and made motions as though he were loading it, Reed said.

"Then he comes out with the rifle back onto the balcony and levels the rifle toward officers," he said, adding that police were still investigating whether he may have fired any shots.

"Three SWAT members fired their weapons.”

Jane Woodman was housesitting for her daughter across the street from the Redford home Saturday night when police knocked on her door and asked her to turn out all the lights and stay in the back of the house.

"We were terrified," she said. "We went out into the family room and stayed there."

She said police told her Redford had a gun. Several sleepless hours later, she heard several shots.

"It was scary," she said.

Redford had no known domestic violence history, and Scottsdale police had not been called to the house before, Reed said.

"We don't know what the initial argument with his wife was about," he said. "I know he wanted the police to leave, which we clearly could not do."

The names of the three officers who fired the shots have not been released. They have been placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine for any officer involved in a shooting.

Police have shot eight other people in the East Valley this year:

— Robert David Gregory, 32, died from a gunshot fired by one of five Scottsdale detectives who attempted to trap him near a Tempe gas station in April. According to police, there was a warrant for Gregory’s arrest, and he crashed a stolen car into three other vehicles.

— Edgar Romero-Arias, about 30, was shot and killed in October by Mesa officer Guillermo Biascoechea during a struggle in which the man pulled out what the officer believed to be a weapon, but turned out to be a car stereo faceplate, police said.

— Dawn Rae Nelson, 35, of Ahwatukee Foothills, was shot and killed in October by Chandler officer Dan Lovelace at a Walgreens pharmacy drive-through window while attempting to fill a fraudulent prescription, police said. The shooting is under investigation by Chandler police and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which reported last week that the Arizona Department of Public Safety and an outside forensics expert are also helping with the investigation. The investigation report is expected to be released Friday.

— Three Mesa police officers shot Lee Lewis, 19, in June in Scottsdale when he attempted to steal a car from a woman at gunpoint, police said. The shooting followed a high-speed chase of Lewis and two other men in a stolen car through Mesa, Scottsdale and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and included two armed carjackings, police said.

— Lewis' cousin, Stephen Lewis, 22, died in April after being shot by three officers. Two Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community police officers and a Mesa officer shot him while trying to arrest him in connection with an armed carjacking.

— Peter Moya, then 21, was shot in the hand and arm in April by a Mesa police officer and two Phoenix officers after he rammed their police cars and shot at them.

— Robbery suspect Kenneth Castaneda, then 29, was grazed by a bullet March 30 fired by Mesa detectives who boxed in his van.

— A Phoenix police officer in Ahwatukee Foothills shot and killed Donald Pullen, 38, when he reached for an officer's gun during a fight in January, police said. Police reported Pullen was speaking unintelligibly and "acting in a bizarre fashion" when his brother called police.

— Tribune writer Alia Beard Rau can be reached by e-mail at or by calling (480) 898-6573.

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