GLENDALE, AZ — A 64-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his brother in a Glendale bedroom died later the same day after an officer-involved shooting in Surprise. Glendale police said officers were first called to the home around 7 a.m. Tuesday after a woman reported that her sons were fighting and that she heard a gunshot.
When officers arrived near 59th Avenue and Cactus Road, they found 54-year-old Steven Landos dead in the bedroom. Police said the suspect, Terry Landos, left the scene in a white van before officers tracked him to a different location in the West Valley.
Mother's call brought officers to the Glendale home before sunrise
Police said the first response began with a call from the men’s mother, who told dispatchers there was an altercation between her sons inside a bedroom at the house. A police spokesperson said she heard one gunshot fired before officers reached the residence.
The family home has been the subject of prior police attention, according to Glendale police, who said they have responded there before for calls for service and criminal activity. Investigators have not said what led up to the confrontation or what caused the dispute to turn deadly.
The mother has been cooperating with investigators, police said, and she is safe. Authorities also said she is being offered victim and support resources following the shooting.
Steven Landos was found dead in a bedroom near 59th Avenue and Cactus Road
After officers entered the home, they discovered Steven Landos dead in the bedroom where the reported fight had taken place. Police identified him as 54 years old and said he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Glendale police have not publicly detailed the injuries that killed him, but the initial response and the single gunshot reported by his mother point to a fast-moving domestic confrontation. The home sits in a busy part of Glendale, not far from several major West Valley roads.
Authorities have not said whether anyone else was inside the home at the time of the shooting. They also have not described whether officers recovered a weapon at the scene in Glendale.
Suspect fled in a white van and was later found in Surprise
Police said Terry Landos left the Glendale home after the shooting and drove away in a white van. Officers later tracked him to the area of 163rd and Grand avenues in Surprise, where the encounter with police turned fatal.
According to investigators, officers tried to contact him there and saw him display a handgun toward them. Police said officers then fired, striking Landos. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
No officers were injured in the Surprise shooting, and police said there was no threat to the public after the confrontation ended. The West Valley location brought the case into a second jurisdiction within hours of the original homicide.
Two deaths now under separate investigations by local and federal teams
The Glendale death and the Surprise officer-involved shooting are being handled as separate parts of the same case. Glendale police are investigating the homicide, while the officer-involved shooting is being reviewed by the U.S. Marshal’s Office, Goodyear police and the West Valley Response Team.
Those agencies will examine the circumstances that led officers to shoot Landos after the pursuit. Police have not said whether he was already wanted on a warrant before being located in Surprise, only that he was being sought after the Glendale killing.
The involvement of multiple agencies is standard in officer-involved shooting reviews in the West Valley, where one department conducts the criminal investigation and outside agencies handle the use-of-force review.
Police say the case remains active as they review the family dispute
Even with both men dead, investigators still have unanswered questions about what happened inside the home. Police have not said what prompted the brothers’ fight, how the gun was introduced into the dispute or whether any previous incidents at the home were connected to this shooting.
Authorities said there is no danger to the public, and they have not identified any additional suspects. For now, the case centers on the sequence that began with a family argument in Glendale and ended with a police shooting in Surprise.
Glendale police have not released further details about the mother’s role beyond saying she called for help and is cooperating. The timeline, they said, began with a bedroom argument and ended with two dead brothers and a separate use-of-force investigation.