Along with the usual gun violence, Tucson Police have had to cope with cases where shooters fire vast amounts of bullets at each other, sometimes with guns altered to fire like machine guns. KGUN 9’s Craig Smith had a chance to sit down with Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar to learn more about how Tucson Police—and you– can fight back.
As Tucson Police work to reduce gun violence, they’ve run into a new and difficult challenge: mass shootings where kids as young as 14 years old might fire hundred of bullets at a time.
In August, at the Hookah Lounge on Speedway near Swan the people blasting away were careless about lives, and did not seem to care about a police officer so close they could see his cruiser right down the street.
Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar says, “Nearly 200 rounds were fired at that in about a minute, an officer was right down the street on a traffic stop. That officer’s lights were visible, and he had just driven through that area. So the individuals who chose to shoot, who chose to shoot and engage in a gunfight there were aware that police were in the area. So that’s a level of boldness that we haven’t seen before.”