Three men were walking across a bridge in Phoenix early Sunday morning when a stranger approached them, pulled out a handgun, and began pistol-whipping one of them.

He wasn’t counting on his “victim” being armed.

It happened at approximately 2 a.m. in downtown Phoenix on the 16th Street bridge, north of Jefferson Street.

Officers responding to a call were flagged down by three individuals.

They said they had been in an altercation with a man, later identified by police as 22-year-old Darell D. Hitchins.

They said Hitchins approached them and without provocation pulled out a handgun. They said the man struck one of them in the head, possibly with the gun.

Once that occurred, the victim who was assaulted pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at the man, striking Hitchins at least once.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man who shot Hitchens and the other two men who witnessed the attacked stayed at the scene, and gave statements to police. The investigation is on-going, but at this moment seems to be a very justifiable case of self-defense.