Arizona police plan community meeting on incident where father killed son with guitar

CLARKDALE, Ariz. — Clarkdale police have scheduled a community meeting Thursday evening to discuss a deadly incident in which a man used a guitar to fatally strike his 4-year-old son on the head and also injure his mother before being fatally shot by a police officer.

A police announcement said the meeting will share information about the incident last Thursday and about trauma and resiliency as well as community resources.

A separate police statement released Monday night said the boy died Friday of injuries inflicted by his father and that the boy’s grandmother also had a fractured skull.

According to the statement, the officer responded to a vague report of an injured person. It said the officer fatally shot 33-year-old Joshua David Hernandez Lord after discovering the injured boy and being threatened by Lord, who was wielding a knife.

The victims’ identities weren’t released.

Police said a 911 call reporting an injured person didn’t mention assaults or “convey the severity of the incident nor the extent of the injuries.”

According to police, the responding officer tried to “deescalate the suspect” and used his stun gun but that it was ineffective.

Clarkdale is about 100 miles north of Phoenix.