YCSO Sergeant Richard Lopez Fatally Shot In Cordes Lakes Tuesday

A Yavapai County Sheriff’s officer was fatally shot in Cordes Lakes Tuesday afternoon. Sheriff David Rhodes said at a late Tuesday night briefing that 51-year-old Sergeant Richard Lopez was on a routine call and was dispatched to the scene in Cordes Lakes. Moments later, 911 operators received calls that there was an officer in distress. Deputies rushed to the home in the area of Stagecoach Trail and Red Rock Road. When they arrived deputies found Lopez unresponsive. They performed live-saving measures on Lopez and got him to a medical helicopter where he was flown to a Phoenix area hospital. He was rushed into surgery, but passed away shortly after. Back in Cordes Lakes, the suspect, 61-year-old Robert McDowell of Mayer, barricaded himself inside the home. Hours later he was taken into custody. McDowell has been charged with first degree murder. Sheriff Rhodes was angry and upset has he discussed the day’s events saying, “I can’t think anything low enough to speak about the shooter, when this person decided to take this life.” Rhodes adds, “we’re hurt, our agency is hurting and I will tell you this: the violence against law enforcement, we are seeing it escalate everywhere, it has got to stop.” Lopez was a 14-year veteran of the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department and was a detective with SWAT. Rhodes says Lopez lived in Prescott Valley and was a yearly participant in the department’s “Shop With A Cop” event, where kids and an officer go on a shopping spree for an underprivileged child in Prescott Valley. He leaves behind a wife and two daughters.