# @downinnadesert on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DbpCzpam3Th
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68801287-downinnadesert-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/cc3d69b045.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-05T02:15:44.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Down In The Desert🌵 (@downinnadesert) — https://gondola.cc/downinnadesert

## Caption

Neighbors were already trying to pull him off her by the time Mesa police pulled up.

Just after 7pm Monday, multiple 911 callers reported a man attacking his ex-wife and children with a shovel outside a home on Emery Circle in east Mesa, west of Meridian and south of Elliot. Witnesses told investigators he was also walking through the neighborhood smashing vehicles with it.

Several neighbors stepped in and tried to stop him before officers ever arrived. Police say that when an officer reached him, the man was holding an axe. The officer gave verbal commands, and during that encounter an officer fired. Officers and Mesa Fire tried to save him. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

His ex-wife, his children, the neighbors who intervened and all responding officers were not hurt. He has not been identified. Gilbert police are leading the investigation through the East Valley Critical Incident Response Team, which is standard for any critical incident in the East Valley.

One resident said she has six kids on that street and that plenty of neighborhood kids watched the whole thing unfold.

Would you have run toward it like those neighbors did, or called it in and stayed inside?

Via: FOX 10 Phoenix, Arizona’s Family and ABC15

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#Mesa #MesaAZ #Arizona #EastValley #DownInnaDesert

## Stats

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- **Likes:** 1,439
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## Tags

downinnadesert, mesaaz, mesa, arizona, eastvalley

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