74-year-old man shot, killed by police during domestic violence call

By AZFamily Digital News Staff

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    PEORIA, Arizona (KPHO/KTVK) — Three officers shot at a 74-year-old man during a domestic violence call at an RV park, the Peoria Police Department said Sunday morning. It happened shortly before 10 p.m. at the Pleasant RV Resort near the Pleasant Harbor Marina. The man died at the scene.

Peoria PD posted photos from the shooting on its Facebook page. It started with a call about a man who had gotten physical with a family member and threatened to shoot them. Police say the suspect, Richard Schaare of Payson, had a gun with officers arrived and refused to drop it. Schaare reportedly went inside his RV for a few minutes. When he opened the door, Schaare pointed his gun at the officers, Peoria PD said. That’s when the three officers fired at least one shot each. It’s not clear how many times Schaare was hit, but paramedics could not save him and pronounced him dead. Nobody else was hurt.

“The police officer came to my daughter-in-law’s door and said you need to get out now! We heard one gunshot. And then two, right after one another. So it was like bop, bop bop!” said Michelle Metivier, who was staying at RV park.

The Peoria Police Department said the three officers were wearing body cameras, which were on and recording. It’s not clear if or when that video might be released. The Glendale Police Department, which is part of the west Valley Investigative Response Team, is handling the investigation.

“They were just trying to instruct the guy to come out of his motor home. But he wouldn’t. They just kept telling him, tried and tried to get him out safely. And I think he had other plans,” said Ary Kasim.

Kimberly Sherro was also a witness at the RV park. “We were literally trying to figure out what was going on as it was happening. And then this lady officer was coming over and taping everything off. And I was like, how concerned should we be? And she was like, you’re safe now,” she explained.

Sherro went on to say many of the witnesses knew Schaare. “You hear all the witnesses like yeah I didn’t interact with him because he was kind of gruff, he was kind of a jerk. It’s strange that someone that aggressive could be that close and armed.”

According to records kept by Arizona’s Family, this is the 15th officer-involved shooting in Maricopa County this year. There have been another eight incidents in other parts of the state.

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