Crime is so bad in the border town of Tucson, AZ that even its Prius-driving mayor has become the victim of a perilous carjacking, in broad daylight no less.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild was held at gunpoint this Saturday when a man demanded the use of his city-issued Toyota. Tucson police officials say that the sexagenerian mayor was not injured, and that the Prius was later recovered. But the audacious carjacker remains at large.
Mayor Rothschild told police that he was walking towards his vehicle at 11am when a man approached him with his gun drawn. He demanded the keys to the car and fled in the vehicle after Rothschild handed them over. The mayor described the suspect as a black man in his 30s or 40s and around six feet tall.
Tucson police Sgt. Pete Dugan says that it does not appear that Rothschild was specifically targeted, and that the suspect had attempted to carjack another vehicle before approaching the mayor. In that instance, the carjacker got into a parked car at a home, but fled when one of the residents told him they were calling the police.
“The suspect fled on foot and a neighbor began chasing him,” wrote Dugan in a Facebook statement. The chase ended when the suspect pulled a gun and pointed it at the resident. A few minutes later, he happened upon Rothschild and took his vehicle at gunpoint.
Historic Tucson is now one of the most dangerous cities in the US due to its unfortunate location on the border with Mexico. According to the latest data released by the State of Arizona and the FBI, the border town sees much higher instances of crime than the national average, with more than twice as many rapes, almost double the number of robberies and assaults, and almost thrice as many thefts.
Crime slightly declined from year-to-year in 2014 (the last year for which complete data is available) but according to US Attorney Bill Montgomery, Arizona state as a whole “experiences disproportionate criminal impacts related to illegal immigration, human smuggling and drug trafficking.”
However, the statistics remain bleak, and this latest instance of violence serves to highlight the state of crime in Tucson.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
