tucson cops kill another person today. Original Article Manhunt ends in Foothills shootout Police kill gunman, 22, in 2nd gunbattle in 2 days By Tony Davis ARIZONA DAILY STAR A suspected drug trafficker fired on law-enforcement officers here for the second time in two days, forcing a Tucson police officer to kill him Saturday morning in the Catalina Foothills, authorities said. The man, 22, was the same one who tried to shoot an undercover Arizona Department of Public Safety officer Thursday night on the Northwest Side, police said. Saturday's shootout brought to a climax a massive police hunt for the man and another one, following a kidnapping during the day Thursday and the first shootout that night. And it capped a series of crimes committed by the two and several others, police said: home invasions, drive-by shootings, possession and trafficking of stolen property, and illegal drug trafficking and possession. Police Chief Richard Miranda, in an emotional press briefing, said yesterday's shootout underscores how pervasive drug-related violence has become in the Tucson area. "We had officers working almost 40 hours straight to get these guys off the street," he said. Saturday's shootout, just before 9 a.m., occurred within 200 yards of where the two men abandoned their car and a high-powered rifle at a cul-de-sac at the end of a strip of homes near North Swan Road and East Skyline Drive. That came after more than 60 officers chased them by car and helicopter from an apartment complex near Swan and East Sunrise Drive. Authorities arrested and jailed three people in Saturday's shootout and the other crimes. One was a 19-year-old Tucson man who accompanied the man killed by police. The others, a man and a woman, were arrested in a shopping center at Swan and Sunrise about the same time as the shootout. The 19-year-old is also suspected in a late-July shooting on the North Side, police said. In that case, Antonio Gonzalez Cornejo, 30, of Goodyear, was found shot to death near East Prince and North Country Club roads. Saturday's shooting marked the fifth time this year that a Tucson police officer fatally shot someone. The most recent shooting came Thursday night on the far South Side in a domestic-violence case. Miranda said the series of crimes leading to Saturday's event shows how much more dangerous it is to be a police officer today in Tucson than it was 10 or 15 years ago. "We're not dealing with people who carry Saturday-night specials anymore," the police chief said. "They're carrying Uzis, machine guns that can do great harm. We need to be aggressive in pursuing them." Police said they may never release the name of the police officer who shot the man, because he is regularly involved in undercover investigations. The dead man's name also wasn't released Saturday, because the Pima County Sheriff's Department must first notify his family, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. The man has relatives in Tucson but it's not known if he lived here, Robinson said. He has been linked to drive-by shootings, home invasions, drug trafficking and other violent criminal activity in Tucson and the Phoenix area, Robinson said. Authorities arrested the second man, Armando Medrano, near the scene of Saturday's shooting, on two kidnapping charges stemming from Thursday's events. He was booked into the Pima County jail Saturday, with bond set at $500,000. Medrano, 19, lives in the 4600 block of East 19th Street. Police also did not release the names of the man and woman who officers said were working with the two men involved in the shootout. The two were booked on charges of unlawful possession of dangerous drugs, possession of stolen property, carrying concealed weapons and trafficking in stolen property. Police also did not disclose details of those crimes or the kidnapping, other than that the kidnapping occurred on Tucson's East Side during the day Thursday. They did not give the kidnapping victim's name. But, "It's safe to say that we are no longer concerned for that person's welfare," police spokesman Robinson said. "We have been informed by his family that he is safe." After the kidnapping occurred, the undercover DPS officer went to a house near North Silverbell Road and West Sweetwater Drive for a surveillance operation. There, a man came to the window of the officer's truck, pointed a gun at the officer's head and pulled the trigger twice. The gun didn't fire, and the officer got out of his truck and fired back. During the ensuing shootout, the man - the same man the police officer shot Saturday - took off with the officer's truck when the officer ran into the desert seeking cover so he could reload his gun. Police recovered the truck Friday morning near Grant and Silverbell not far from the shooting scene, although some of the property in it had been stolen. Saturday morning, the authorities following several leads had staked out the apartment complex near Sunrise and Swan when they spotted the same man and a companion, this time in a small, green Mercury Tracer, police said. They chased the Mercury through the Foothills, traveling about 2 1/2 miles in five minutes, before the green car pulled into the cul-de-sac on East Camino Culiacan and the two jumped out, Robinson said. Chasing them on foot, officers first caught Medrano, Robinson said. The second man kept running into open desert near the homes until officers caught up with him and the shootout began. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Star reporter Alexis Huicochea contributed to this report. Contact reporter Tony Davis at 806-7746 or tdavis@azstarnet.com.