PHOENIX — A man was found fatally shot inside a vehicle that crashed near 19th and Maryland avenues just after midnight Saturday, and Phoenix police arrested a suspect a short time later inside a nearby apartment complex.
Officers were sent to the 1800 block of West Maryland Avenue on multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire and a traffic crash, according to police accounts carried by FOX 10, ABC15, and Arizona’s Family. They arrived to find a man dead from a gunshot wound inside a vehicle that had struck a garage.
Witnesses told investigators the shooter left on foot within seconds and went into the Estates on Maryland Apartments. Officers identified a specific unit, surrounded it, and took the suspect into custody. Homicide detectives have the case. As of Saturday afternoon, police had not released the names of the victim or the person arrested, and they had not described a motive.
The scene drew a crime-scene response to the area of 18th and Maryland as detectives collected evidence and interviewed people who had called 911. The shooting and the crash were reported together, which is why the first units were looking for both gunfire and a wrecked vehicle rather than a single type of call.
Central Phoenix has seen several fatal shootings in recent days, including a separate Friday-night homicide near 39th and Grand avenues in which police later booked a named suspect. Detectives have not publicly linked the two cases. They are being investigated as distinct incidents, hours and miles apart.
Anyone with video from the Maryland Avenue block — doorbell cameras, dashcams, or apartment surveillance — can reach Phoenix police homicide. Officials have not said whether the person in custody has been booked on a specific charge. That step often follows once detectives finish the first round of interviews and the medical examiner confirms the cause of death.
Police described the immediate threat as contained once the arrest was made. The block remained an active investigation into Saturday as crews worked the crashed vehicle and the path witnesses said the shooter took into the apartment complex.