What Happened

On Tuesday, February 10, 2026, at about 4 p.m., a Goodyear, Arizona, police officer was grazed in the leg by a bullet during a struggle with a shoplifting suspect near Interstate 10 and Litchfield Road, according to AZFamily and FOX 10 Phoenix.

Officers were responding to a retail theft call. When the first officer tried to detain a man matching the description, a physical struggle followed. FOX 10 reported that the struggle was over the officer's holstered weapon and that a shot discharged and grazed the officer's leg. AZFamily reported the bullet grazed the officer's right calf. Police Chief Brian Issitt said the officer "was grazed by a bullet."

According to both outlets, the officer then fired when, police said, the man kept coming at the officer and reaching for the weapon and vest. The man died at the scene; FOX 10 reported he was given CPR there. The officer was hospitalized with a non-life-threatening injury and released. Avondale police are leading the investigation.

What is not public: how much the graze bled, what first aid was given, and who gave it. The investigation is ongoing, and we are not commenting on the struggle or the use of force.

The Lesson

This is a general principle, not a finding about this response.

"Just a graze" still gets a proper look. Officers coming out of a fight often don't know they've been hit, or they underestimate it. A graze to the lower leg is usually minor, but the only way to know is to expose it and look: cut or roll the pant leg, check for an entry and exit, and check the rest of the leg and the other leg too. Adrenaline masks pain, and dark uniforms hide blood.

Match the tool to the wound. Not every leg wound needs a tourniquet. Minor bleeding can be managed with direct pressure and a pressure dressing, while life-threatening bleeding gets a tourniquet high and tight or wound packing. The Joint Trauma System's Vascular Injury CPG lists prehospital care as "Pressure dressings, tourniquet placement, wound packing, etc." followed by "Initiation of evacuation and safe handoff." That is military guidance; civilian officers should follow their agency protocol and C-TECC's TECC Guidance, but the decision logic is the same.

Post-fight self-check is a trained habit. Once the scene is safe, every officer involved should run hands down their own body, look at their hands for blood, and then check a partner. It takes seconds and it catches wounds nobody felt.

What Your Agency Should Do Now

  • Teach a post-fight blood sweep as a standard step after any use of force, alongside handcuffing and the radio call.
  • Carry a pressure dressing, not just a tourniquet. Make sure every IFAK has a way to handle bleeding that doesn't need a tourniquet.
  • Run scenarios where the officer is wounded but doesn't know it until a partner finds it, so the check becomes automatic.

Sources