Edward Celaya
The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
TUCSON, Ariz. — A Tucson EMT is fighting for his life after he and his partner were shot in their rig during a shooting spree Sunday has been publicly identified by the city’s police chief.
“Thinking about Jacob Dindinger,” Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus tweeted Wednesday. “Twenty-year-old EMT here in Tucson who was ambushed, shot in the head, and remains in very critical condition.”
Thinking about Jacob Dindinger, 20-year-old EMT here in Tucson who was ambushed, shot in the head, and remains in very critical condition.
That was me at 20. Just starting a career.
And he is just one of far too many young people losing their life to gun violence.
Senseless pic.twitter.com/UmuYD8IKo6
— Chris Magnus (@ChiefCMagnus) July 21, 2021
His name and photos have been shared on several social media sites this week, but police had withheld naming him because the agency does not typically release the names of people who are wounded.
Dindinger, an emergency medical technician with American Medical Response, was shot two times in the head and once each in the neck and his arm Sunday while he and his partner were sitting in their ambulance at Silverlake Park.
His partner, 21, was shot as well. However, she managed to describe the attacker and the SUV he was driving to dispatchers, police have said. She was last reportedly in serious but stable condition at a Tucson hospital. Officials with AMR and police have not released her name.
Dindinger reportedly became an EMT to follow in his brother’s footsteps.
The accused gunman, Leslie Scarlett, is also suspected of starting a house fire where a body was later found, shooting a neighbor to death who tried to help respond to the fire, and shooting at a police officer before being shot and critically wounded by the officer, police say.
___
(c)2021 The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ariz.)