In The News
Arizona authorities confirm 11 vehicles shot at around Phoenix, latest a tractor-trailer
PHOENIX — Arizona authorities confirm that 11 vehicles have been shot at in the Phoenix area, the most recent involving a tractor-trailer. Most are occurring on freeways in a string of incidents that have put residents on edge.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Raul Garcia says the driver of a commercial truck on Thursday reported finding a bullet hole in the cargo area after hours of making deliveries.
DPS previously listed 10 other incidents involving vehicles on freeways getting hit with gunfire or other projectiles in the last two weeks. There have been no serious injuries, but the shootings have left the city on edge and some drivers searching for alternate routes.
Investigators also are examining a tractor-trailer near Interstate 10. Garcia says it hasn't been determined whether the vehicle was shot at. A car window was damaged in a third incident Thursday, but Garcia says it doesn't appear it was a shooting.
Arizona transportation officials say there have been no significant changes in traffic on Phoenix freeways after a string of possible shootings has rattled residents.
State Department of Transportation spokesman Garin Groff said Thursday that a traffic operations center did not find any drop cars traveling on highways.
The reports are the latest in a string of such incidents that has the metro area on edge and drivers searching for alternate routes.
The shootings have largely centered around I-10, a main thoroughfare through Phoenix.
News video showed investigators examining what appeared to be a small hole in the truck's cargo area. That happened near Interstate 10 on the western edge of a stretch of freeway where many of the shootings have taken place.
Earlier Thursday morning, several miles east on I-10, a car's rear window was damaged by what DPS describes as a projectile. Police were unable to verify a separate report of a gunshot.
Police have been asking for the public's help in identifying a suspect and quadrupled the reward Tuesday to $20,000.
The Phoenix shootings have brought back memories of other random highway and roadside shootings in recent years, most notably the sniper attacks that terrorized the nation's capital more than a decade ago.
A series of apparently random roadside shootings in northern Colorado earlier this year raised alarm that a serial shooter might be trolling areas roads.
A member of the task force investigating the northern Colorado shootings that left a cyclist dead and a driver injured called authorities in Arizona to see if there were any similarities, said David Moore, a spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. Investigators found no links, he said.
A man was convicted last year of terrorism charges after opening fire on a busy Michigan highway because he believed the drivers were part of a government conspiracy against him. An Ohio man took shots at several cars and houses over several months in 2003, killing one person, before being caught and sent to prison.
Making an arrest in such cases requires a large number of officers who are ready to flood an area immediately after shots are fired, said Lt. Ron Moore, who commanded a Michigan task force that investigated the 2012 spree in which 23 vehicles were shot on or near Interstate 96.
"You have to bring all the resources you can to bear on the problem — and that's exactly what we did," said Moore, an officer in Wixom, Michigan.
AP writer Sadie Gurman in Denver contributed to this report.
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