PHOENIX — A suspect was arrested in connection to five separate shootings in the Phoenix metro area that left four people dead and one person injured, authorities said Sunday.
The Mesa Police Department said Iren Byers, 20, has been booked into jail on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder for four separate shootings in Mesa, Arizona, and one in Phoenix on Friday and Saturday.
While a motive for the shootings wasn’t immediately clear, police said Byers was cooperative with authorities and took responsibility for all five shootings during questioning.
Byers told officers where they could find the clothing he wore and the handgun he used during his crime spree, which officers recovered at Byers’ residence, after completion of a search warrant, police said.
During the investigation, officers reviewed video footage from various sources in the area of the shootings. They found the same man in all the videos, wearing the same clothing as reported by witnesses at the time of the shootings.
Police also said shell casings recovered from the shooting scenes were all linked to the same 9mm handgun.
Mesa Mayor John Giles released a statement Saturday evening to say he was deeply disturbed by the overnight violence in Mesa and that “this is a tragedy felt throughout the city.”
“Mesa residents deserve a safe and peaceful city,” Giles said. “Unfortunately, incidents like this are all too common in large and small cities throughout the country.”
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Shooting victims identified
On Friday afternoon around 3:40 p.m., police said Byers shot a man next to a canal in Phoenix. Officers identified the man as 41-year-old Nicholas Arnstad and pronounced him dead at the scene.
Later that evening, just before 10:30 p.m., officers were dispatched to a Mesa park for a report of a person found dead. Officers discovered the body of Julian Cox, 41.
While still at the park, officers heard shots fired nearby and other officers began to search the area, police said. At about 12:15 a.m. on Saturday, officers found a 36-year-old woman with serious injuries. The woman was identified as Angela Fonseca. She was transported to the hospital remains in stable condition.
Another person called the police just before 1 a.m. on Saturday to report a dead man near a Mesa bus station. Officers arrived and found the body of another 41-year-old man identified as Stephen Young.
Officers saturated the area in search of the suspect and other victims and ultimately discovered another body just after 2 a.m. The man was identified as John Swain, 40.
Authorities said all of the victims had gunshot wounds.
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According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 70 mass shootings so far in the month of May — bringing the total of mass shootings in 2023 to 259. The non-profit group said prior to 2020, they had never reported more than 60 shootings in a month.
“There were 217 mass shootings by this date last year,” the Gun Violence Archive said on Twitter Monday. And at least 14 people have been killed and 58 others injured in mass shootings across the United States since Friday.
“This is the fourth straight year that the month of May has reached 60+ mass shootings,” the non-profit group said.
The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident with a minimum of four injuries or deaths, not including the shooter.
Contributing: The Associated Press