On the morning of May 26, 2010, 29-year-old Phoenix Police Officer Travis Paul Murphy was shot and killed while responding to reports of shots fired and a suspicious vehicle. Officers had broadcast a vehicle description after the initial call. Later that night Murphy and other officers responded to a report of a man trying to conceal a vehicle under a tarp at a vacant house and began searching the area on foot. At a residence on West Fairmount Avenue the suspect opened fire with a high-powered rifle, striking Officer Murphy multiple times in his legs and lower abdomen. He was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital but died of his wounds.

The suspect, identified as Danny Ledezma Martinez, fled the immediate scene but was found shortly afterward hiding in a nearby shed and taken into custody. Martinez was charged with first-degree murder. Murphy had served with the Phoenix Police Department for four and a half years and left behind a wife, a 2-year-old daughter, and a son who was two weeks old when he was killed.