PHOENIX — Two men are in police custody after being accused of target shooting on a popular Phoenix hiking trail.
A Phoenix park ranger told 12News he stopped two men who were allegedly shooting a saguaro cactus near the Nature Trail at Piestewa Peak on Monday afternoon.
The park ranger told the men the police were on the way and that's when investigators said the two men took off in a stolen car and led officers on a pursuit through Phoenix.
Officers on the ground lost sight of the men after they ran a red light, but a police helicopter continued surveillance by air.
The men eventually stopped in a Walmart parking lot near 67th and Peoria avenues.
"Someone ran through the store. The door alarm went off, and then the store manager told everyone to come to the front of the store and not to be by the windows," a man inside Walmart at the time said. "No shopping or nothing, we just sat there."
Officers arrested the men.
Back at Piestewa Peak, investigators walked away with a bag full of shell casings.
Saguaro cacti are protected plants in Arizona. State law prevents theft and destruction of native plants.
“It’s opening wounds that the saguaro is going to have to heal from," Toni Cruse, a regional manager with Moon Valley Nurseries, said about gunshot wounds on a cactus.
Cruse said it can take quite some time for the slow-growing plant to heal from those wounds.
“It’s going to cause a problem with their ability to stand tall and their ability to keep standing with all the arms that it might have at that point," Cruse said.
Police have not yet said if these men will face charges.
UP TO SPEED
What is the Valley?:
“The Valley” is what locals call the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is considered the largest metropolitan area in the Southwest.
The Valley is made up of various major cities other than Phoenix, including:
- Mesa
- Chandler
- Scottsdale
- Tempe
- Glendale
- Surprise
- Peoria
- Gilbert
- El Mirage
- Avondale
- Litchfield Park
- Goodyear
- Buckeye
Whether a city is in the “East Valley” or “West Valley” depends on where it is in relation to Phoenix.
The cities of the Valley have a combined population of 4,845,832 people, according to the 2020 United States Census. This makes it the 11th largest metropolitan area in the country right behind the Boston and Atlanta areas.
How big is Maricopa County?
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.