Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks out on missing MCSO weapons

PHOENIX (KSAZ) -- Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is speaking out, as the incumbent county sheriff announced that 29 weapons with the department have gone missing, with two of them turning up in the wrong hands.

In a news conference on Wednesday, Sheriff Penzone said the two weapons were found, following a deadly shooting on I-17 on Monday involving 27-year-old Arnaldo Caraveo. The incident began in Mesa, and ended up involving multiple law enforcement agencies. Caraveo died following the incident.

The weapons were reportedly Federal surplus firearms that were handed out to local law enforcement, but it is not clear at this point as to how the guns went missing.

Sheriff Penzone said Caraveo was using a gun that went missing from MCSO, since between 2010 and 2015, when Arpaio was Sheriff. Arpaio, meanwhile, said this is an issue for Sheriff Penzone.

"What do I have to do with it?" said Arpaio, in a phone interview. "I mean, a lot of things happened after I left. I mean, he is the sheriff. It is his responsibility to do something, if it happened. It happened, not who caused that to happen. The story is what he is doing about it."

Meanwhile, Sheriff Penzone released a statement on Thursday, which reads, in part:

"I'm not going to talk about him," said Arpaio. "What he said about me, other than the fact that is his comment, I will not get into a fight with him. OK? Not that I can't handle it, believe me."