A routine traffic stop in Whiteriver, Arizona on the evening of June 2, 2022, ended with White Mountain Apache Police Officer Adrian Lopez, 35, being fatally shot during an altercation with the vehicle’s driver. The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Kevin Dwight Nashio, fled in Lopez’s patrol vehicle and led officers on a roughly 40-mile pursuit across the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The chase included a rolling gun battle; after crashing near Hawley Lake Nashio exchanged further gunfire with pursuing officers. Nashio was killed in that final shootout and Sergeant Lonnie Thompson was wounded. The FBI is leading the investigation.

Lopez had been with the White Mountain Apache Police Department five months, previously served as a Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer and was a U.S. Army veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is survived by his wife and two children and his body was taken to Los Angeles for burial. Does anyone have information about the events on East Fork Road that evening or about the pursuit that followed?