New body-cam video shows moment trooper was shot by suspect

By David Baker

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    PHOENIX (KPHO) — The Department of Public Safety released a new video on Thursday showing a trooper getting shot during a traffic stop earlier this week. The edited body-cam video of Trooper Sean Harkins shows him walking up to a dark-colored Kia four-door sedan in the area of 21st Avenue and Thomas Road on Monday morning. That’s when the suspect, who Phoenix Police identified as 29-year-old Luis Mateo Jacobo Borja, leans out his window, says, “Gotta go bro,” and shoots Harkins in the leg. Harkins screams out in pain, and it appears his swearing has been edited out of the video. The driver takes off.

Harkins is on the ground while he calls out on the radio the police codes that indicate he’s been shot. “Oh God, shots fired,” he yelled. “517, I’m hit.” The video then cuts to the trooper heading back to his patrol truck, where he gets a tourniquet from the passenger’s side door. A law enforcement officer to arrives to help. “You hit?” he asks. “Yeah. My left leg, my left leg,” Harkins repeats.

Harkins gives dispatch a description of the shooter. “You OK? You OK?” the man asks. “Stay with me. stay with me.” He then tells dispatch Harkins is hit in the left leg and that he’s in and out of consciousness. The three-minute video ends.

Harkins was taken to the hospital and later released that night. Police say Borja shot at police twice before he crashed into a wall near 36th Avenue and Thomas Road. One officer was hospitalized after being hit by shrapnel but was released Monday night. Borja was found shot to death in his car. It’s unclear if he took his own life or if the police shot him.

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