Breaking: Arizona Authorities Unveil New Details on Police Helicopter Crash Amid Intense Shootout

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – On Friday, officials are set to provide further details regarding a tragic helicopter crash involving Arizona law enforcement, which resulted in the deaths of a pilot and a trooper during a confrontation with a suspect in a domestic violence case.

The suspect, whose name has not yet been disclosed, engaged in a prolonged standoff with officers, firing from several rooftops in Flagstaff for nearly two hours on Wednesday night.

Following the helicopter crash, authorities apprehended the suspect, who sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and was subsequently hospitalized. The cause of the helicopter’s crash remains under investigation, though authorities have labeled the incident as accidental.

The incident unfolded when police responded to a domestic violence call around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, as detailed by Flagstaff Police Chief Sean Connolly during a Thursday press briefing.

While officers communicated with the victim in the property’s front yard, the suspect unexpectedly began shooting at them from the back of the house using a semiautomatic long rifle.

A protracted gunbattle ensued, with the unidentified suspect “hopping from roof to roof” in the neighborhood while shooting at officers. The police chief described the neighborhood as “under siege” while the suspect shot on officers and into homes.

Connolly indicated three Flagstaff police officers and one Department of Public Safety employee fired their weapons during the altercation.

Pilot Robert Skanky was a longtime resident of Kingman, Arizona, city officials said in a statement. Skanky had been hired by the Arizona Department of Public Safety in May 2021 and previously served 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, according to a Fraternal Order of Police organization in Arizona.

The name of the trooper, who was also a paramedic, was not immediately released. He had joined the Department of Public Safety in 2022.