An explosion damaged a Mesa police patrol car in east Mesa, Arizona, early on Thursday, November 12, and sent the officer who had been using the vehicle to hospital, while officers were in the neighbourhood searching for a suspect in a separate shots-fired call, the Mesa Police Department said.

Source: The Phoenix Focal

Local television reports from the scene, citing Mesa police, described the blast as an explosive device thrown at the parked patrol vehicle and said the officer's injuries were not life-threatening. Police themselves have not yet said publicly what caused the explosion, and they have not said whether it was connected to the gunfire report that brought officers to the area.

What happened, step by step

Officers were dispatched just after 6 a.m. on Thursday to a report of shots fired near 96th Street and Hampton Avenue, in a residential neighbourhood south of Southern Avenue in east Mesa, according to the Mesa Police Department.

While officers were searching the surrounding streets for a suspect, one officer reported that an explosion had damaged his patrol vehicle near 96th Street and Sunland Avenue, roughly half a mile north of the location of the original call. Both scenes sit between Ellsworth Road and Crismon Road, two of the main north-south routes through east Mesa.

The officer who reported the explosion was taken to a hospital. The Phoenix Focal, reporting the police account, said the transport was a precaution and that no further information on the officer's condition was immediately available; local television coverage of the police briefing reported that the officer was struck by the blast, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to hospital for evaluation.

Two investigations, one neighbourhood locked down

Investigations are active at both scenes — the shots-fired location and the explosion location — and authorities asked the public to avoid the area while officers and investigators work. Police did not say whether any suspect had been identified or taken into custody in either case.

Why it matters in Mesa

Mesa is one of Arizona's largest cities, and its east side is a dense patchwork of residential subdivisions along Southern Avenue, a main east-west artery. A pre-dawn gunfire call followed by an explosion beside a patrol car is the kind of incident that puts an entire neighbourhood on alert: residents woke to two police scenes within about half a mile of each other, road closures around the investigation area, and no confirmed explanation for hours.

Attacks and near-attacks on officers during routine calls are tracked closely by Arizona law-enforcement agencies because the first minutes of a shots-fired response — officers spread out on foot and in vehicles across dark residential streets — are among the most exposed moments in patrol work. Thursday's incident will be examined in that light once investigators establish what exploded and why.

What happens next

The Mesa Police Department's investigation at both scenes is continuing, and local television reported that the department's bomb specialists were part of the response. Police are expected to confirm the cause of the explosion, whether the two calls are linked, and the officer's condition in a further update. Residents with information about either incident have been encouraged to contact the Mesa Police Department.