Arizona police question man in Phoenix freeway shootings

Associated Press

PHOENIX

Police swarmed a convenience store near Interstate 10, detained a man and seized his white Chevrolet Tahoe on Friday, raising hopes of a resolution to the freeway shootings rattling Phoenix.

A man and woman were taken into custody for questioning, but Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said only the man is of interest to investigators.

The man was booked into a Phoenix jail on unrelated charges Friday night, DPS officials said. They didn’t release his name or the charges but said their investigation into the freeway shootings “has not been closed.”

Graves said earlier Friday that the SUV was being examined for any evidence that might connect it to 11 confirmed shootings on the city’s freeways in the last two weeks.

Witnesses said law- enforcement officers seemed to be waiting for the man to appear and moved in quickly, surrounding his SUV with unmarked vehicles.

“What you saw occur today is a result of a lot of troopers on the road, a lot of detectives on the road, a lot of undercover and marked vehicles, just a lot of work by our detectives trying to solve this case,” Graves said.

The man, who has not been identified, complained that officers had been aggressive with him, aggravating his back injury. Speaking to Fox 10 in Phoenix (KSAZ-TV) from the back of a squad car after being apprehended, he said officers surrounded him and his mother, guns drawn, after he bought a pack of cigarettes and a drink.

Josie Duarte had thought something was odd when she arrived for work at a nearby dental clinic earlier Friday and noticed 10 unmarked cars along with a marked police truck parked behind her office. She realized what was up when she saw the same cars swarm the parking lot of the Chevron station and convenience store.

Store clerk Sara Kaur said she was the one who sold the man some cigarettes, about 9:15 a.m., moments before 15 to 20 cars swarmed in and officers handcuffed him. She described him as being about 30 years old and a regular customer, and said she’s “never had a problem with him.”

Graves said officers investigating the shootings will remain on patrol and his agency will keep posting freeway billboard messages urging the public to come forward with any tips.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” he said Friday.

Phoenix drivers have been unnerved since the shootings began Aug. 29, mostly along I-10, a major route through the city. Many drivers have avoided freeways since then. Eight of the cars were hit with bullets and three with projectiles that could have been BBs or pellets. One girl’s ear was cut by glass as a bullet shattered her window.

Authorities appealed for help through social media, news conferences, TV interviews and freeway message boards, whose messages morphed from “report suspicious activity” to “shooting tips” to the more ominous “I-10 shooter tip line.”

Many of the thousands of tips proved to be false leads. In Arizona, windshields frequently are cracked by loose rocks sent airborne by the tires of other vehicles.