CENTRAL PHOENIX - A state Department of Corrections officer was shot and killed Sunday night over a $50 drug debt, police said.

Jerry Booker, 57, who worked at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Eyman in Florence, was pistol-whipping and threatening to shoot Nyeema Irby, 23, when Irby pulled his own gun and fired, Phoenix police Detective Tony Morales said.

Irby owed Booker $50, and Booker was trying to collect it, Morales said. Irby was questioned and released, pending reviews of the shooting.

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"There's definitely some self-defense issues that have to be further investigated," Morales said.

Booker worked for the Corrections Department from 1981 to 1988 and was hired again in September 2001. He was assigned to a sex-offender yard, and prison officials said Booker's job evaluations were slightly above average.

Police found Booker's body around 6:45 p.m. Sunday after they were called to an apartment complex in the 1600 block of West Pierson Street for a "subject threatening with a gun." Booker had been shot several times.

Irby, who was beaten with a handgun, turned himself in to an off-duty officer at a hospital where he went for treatment of head wounds, Morales said. Irby admitted using and dealing methamphetamine but claimed the shooting was self-defense, Morales said.

Police said Irby was the target of a July 4 shooting at the same complex, where a 2-year-old boy was hit in the abdomen. Irby was grazed in the foot in that incident.