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| Leonard Pennelas-Escobar and Vanessa Monique Lopez-Ruiz |
A man who was a police officer in Mexico before illegally entering the United States, has shot an Arizona police officer who tried to help him following a car crash.
37-year-old Leonard Pennelas-Escobar shot Trooper Edward Andersson, who came to help him and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Vanessa Monique Lopez-Ruiz, after Pennelas-Escobar’s car overturned while driving on Interstate 10 on Thursday.
After shooting the trooper, Pennelas-Escobar began beating him. Luckily, a good Samaritan intervened and shot Pennelas-Escobar to death.
According to the police investigation, Pennelas-Escobar and Lopez-Ruiz were driving on the highway when the car overturned.
She had been expelled in the high-speed rollover and was later declared dead. Andersson stopped on the interstate and had deployed flares in an attempt to make motorists slow down.
Pennelas-Escobar said something in Spanish before shooting the trooper and used fists to beat the officer in the head.
The driver of another car who witnessed the attack, pulled out a gun and shot Pennelas-Escobar who refused to stop attacking Andersson.
As the driver was trying to help the wounded police officer, Pennelas-Escobar got up and began hitting Andersson again.
The motorist then fired a fatal shot at Pennelas-Escobar.
Pennelas-Escobar was in the country illegally. He was a drug addict, and was a police officer in Mexico before coming to the United States.
