PHOENIX — He is a lanky Hispanic man in his 20s who drives down the darkened streets of poor, predominantly Latino neighborhoods, blending in as he selects his targets. He either fires through an open window or gets out of the car to shoot from close range before driving off.
The Serial Street Shooter, as he has been dubbed, has killed seven people and wounded two since March in nine attacks that have sown fear in Phoenix and led to a police plea for the public’s help.
The victims include a 12-year-girl who was shot to death along with her mother and a friend of the woman. In the most recent attack, on July 11, a man and a 4-year-old boy escaped injury after the gunman shot at a vehicle they were sitting in.
Investigators are checking hundreds of leads, trying to find out if neighbors or security cameras captured video footage of the killer. They have put undercover officers on extra patrols and are receiving help from the FBI. And they are hoping someone who knows the shooter comes forward.
Unlike other serial killers, who often stay in the shadows, this one has allowed witnesses to catch glimpses of him, enabling police to create a sketch they have circulated. Detectives also found shell casings at four crime scenes, though authorities will not say what ballistics revealed.
A complicating factor is many Maryvale residents are immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally or don’t have their paperwork in order and fear they will be deported if they go to police, said Maribel Diaz, with a neighborhood watch group handing out fliers with the sketch of the gunman. Diego Verdugo-Sanchez, 21, became the killer’s first fatal victim on April 1, when he left his girlfriend’s mother’s home to lock his sport utility vehicle. He was hit three times in the torso and twice in the chest.
The deadliest attack came June 12 when the suspect stopped his vehicle, got out and shot dead Angela Rochelle Liner, Stefanie Ellis, and Ellis’ 12-year-old daughter Maleah as they sat in a parked car listening to music in front of a house. Liner had $2,900 with her but the suspect didn’t take it.