WEST VALLEY CITY -- Rita Atkinson knew something horrible had happened when she got home Friday night and noticed on the Caller ID that the Phoenix Police Department had called.
"I always worried something would happen to him, and it did," she said.Her son, an officer with the Phoenix Police Department, had been shot to death while pursuing drug suspects. Two bullets hit him in the head after three gunmen opened fire on him in what investigators are calling an ambush Friday.
Officer Marc Atkinson, 27, died at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center after the shooting, police said. He is the first Phoenix officer to die in the line of duty since 1991. He left behind his wife, Karen, and his 7-month-old son, Jeremy.
"This was always my biggest fear," Rita Atkinson said from her West Valley home Saturday. "Losing a child is the worse thing that can happen. I lost my husband and my father, but this is so much worse. It's horrible."
Marc Atkinson lived in Phoenix for about seven years, but his roots are in Utah. He was reared in West Valley and graduated from Cyprus High School in 1988, his mother said. He joined the Phoenix Police Department when he was 22.
Just after 5:30 p.m. Friday, Marc Atkinson was in pursuit of three drug suspects in west Phoenix, police said. The car the men were in stopped after turning a corner. The three jumped out with their guns and waited. As soon as Marc Atkinson turned the corner, the men opened fire.
"It was a one-way gun battle at that point," Sgt. Mike Torres said. "He tried to just accelerate through the area . . . (but) they opened up on him."
Word of the shooting began to spread though Marc Atkinson's old West Valley neighborhood Saturday. Marc Atkinson lived on Trail Avenue (4200 South) and about 4900 West. Friends and neighbors were stunned.
"This was a wonderful young man who had everything to live for," said Beverly Whitley, who lives two houses away from the Atkinson house. "He had a wife and a baby -- who was the light of his life. It was all blown away for no reason."
After graduating from high school, Marc Atkinson served in the gulf war as a Marine. He moved to Phoenix and decided to become a police officer.
"He was intrigued by it," Rita Atkinson said. "He absolutely loved being a police officer."
Phoenix police have arrested three suspects in the case. Felipe Petrona-Cabanas, 17, Oscar Garcia-Martinez, 22, and 18-year-old Oberlin Cabanas-Salgado were in custody Friday night.
Funeral arrangements for the slain officer have not been set.