After more than a year of killing nine innocent people in a dozen separate shootings in Phoenix, the mysterious, “Serial street killer” was arrested by the police. On Monday, May 8, Jeri Williams, Chief of Phoenix Police, o said that his team had arrested the shooter - Aaron Juan Saucedo. He is charged with 26 felony cases of drive-by shooting, aggravated assaults, and homicides.
On Monday, May 8, after sorting through thousands of community tips on the serial killer, the police were finally able to zero in on the main culprit.
Modus operandi of the 'serial street killer'
Former city bus driver Saucedo mostly took down his victims at night by stalking them as they approached their cars or homes and then shot them down in their own yard. Most of the killings took place in the Maryvale area, which is a predominantly Latino area with most residents of low socioeconomic status. The killings took place between 2015 and 2016 and had initially confused the investigators because of the contradictory descriptions of the killer and the vehicle he used while on the shooting spree.
The sudden killings ignited fear in the heart of Phoenix residents with parents keeping their children inside and away from the windows. By evening the streets would be deserted. The deadliest of all the incidents took place on June 12, 2016, when Saucedo murdered a 12-year-old girl along with two women in their 30s.
Arrest of Saucedo and his previous crimes
Saucedo was arrested last month for murdering his mother’s 61-year-old boyfriend Raul Romero. However, at that point in time, the officials did not link him with the profile of the “serial street killer.” Although the police could not pinpoint a motive to Saucedo’s open firing and killing of nine people, a spokesman for the Phoenix police force stated that the 23-year-old was arrested on the basis of a “wide host of evidence,” which included witness testimony, ballistics, and surveillance.
All the evidence points toward him being the “serial street killer.”
Presently, it is not yet clear if Saucedo has been appointed a lawyer. Prior to these incidents, Saucedo does not have a criminal record in the state of Arizona. He, for a brief period of time, worked as a municipal bus driver and was working at a temp agency at the time of his arrest. His acts of violence began on Aug. 12, 2015, when he shot into a neighbor’s house. No one was injured. Four days after the incident, he murdered Romero, the only victim who was known to him. According to Phoenix police, his killing spree on the streets of the city started after Romero’s murder.