Man arrested in Arizona shooting rampage that left four dead
A man has been arrested in a series of Arizona shootings that left five people dead and one woman wounded, authorities said Sunday.
Iren Byers, 20, was arrested Sunday and charged with four counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
His arrest followed a night of four shootings in Mesa and one in Phoenix. Byers didn’t provide cops with a motive, but admitted to doing it after ballistics at all five scenes led authorities to him, cops said. The shell casings recovered from the shooting scenes were from the same 9-mm. handgun, which is also what was used in the Phoenix shooting Friday afternoon, according to police.
Byers confessed and told cops where he’d stashed the clothes and gun he used.
The carnage started around 10:30 p.m. Friday when police responded to a call in a park in Mesa to find the body of a 41-year-old man. They heard shots nearby that led them to a woman, 36, with serious injuries. She is hospitalized and is in stable condition, authorities said.
At about 1 a.m. Sunday, another call came in, this one reporting a body near a bus station in Mesa. There, police found a dead 41-year-old man, followed an hour later by the discovery of another body.
The investigation into the series of shootings “is very complex and still in the beginning stages,” police told KPNX-TV.
Mesa Mayor John Giles decried the violence.
“I am deeply disturbed by the violence in Mesa last night,” he said in a statement obtained by KPNX. “Our Mesa community grieves for the victims and mourns with their loved ones. This is a tragedy felt throughout the City.”
With News Wire Services
