PHOENIX - Arizona typically ranks among the top states for officer-involved shootings. But this year's spike in police shootings is stunning.
Maricopa County is on pace to match the number of police shootings in Los Angeles County, which is two-and-a-half times our size.
The officer-involved shooting Tuesday at Central and Osborn was the 25th this year in Phoenix, on pace to far exceed the total for each of the last five years.
The Phoenix police shootings are driving the numbers higher in all of Maricopa County.
There were 43 police shootings countywide for all of last year, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Halfway through this year, 42 police shootings have been recorded in a county of 4 million people, on pace to top the much larger Los Angeles County.
L.A. County, with 10 million people, posted 78 officer-involved shootings last year and just 36 so far this year -- six fewer than Maricopa County, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's Office.
Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said two months ago she would ask Arizona State University experts to study the rash of shootings.
A police spokesman said Tuesday the focus of that study hasn't been nailed down yet.