Phoenix freeway shooting suspect: 'I'm the wrong guy'

[Lite Beer]

Phoenix freeway shooting suspect: 'I'm the wrong guy'
By TERRY TANG and BRIAN SKOLOFF

PHOENIX (AP) — A landscaper arrested in a series of Phoenix freeway shootings told a judge Saturday that authorities have "the wrong guy" as investigators stood by their detective work that traced the gun to the suspect after he took it to a pawn shop.

Leslie Allen Merritt Jr. was charged with counts including aggravated assault, criminal damage, disorderly conduct, carrying out a drive-by shooting and intentional acts of terrorism.

In a brief court appearance, a prosecutor said the 21-year-old should face a high bail after drivers spent the last three weeks on edge.

"The suspect presents a dramatic and profound threat to the community," said Ed Leiter of the Maricopa County attorney's office.

Superior Court Commissioner Lisa Roberts set bail at $1 million, and Merritt, who had remained quiet during the proceedings, asked in a soft-spoken voice to address the court.

"All I have to say is I'm the wrong guy. I tried telling the detectives that. My gun's been in the pawn shop the last two months. I haven't even had access to a weapon," he said as he stood handcuffed in a black and white striped jail uniform.

Merritt was arrested Friday evening after a SWAT team swarmed him at a Wal-Mart in the suburb of Glendale. Minutes later, Gov. Doug Ducey proclaimed on Twitter, "We got him!"

Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said the break in the case was the result of exhaustive investigative work in which weapons from local pawn shops were test-fired at the state crime lab.

Graves said evidence from shell casings and bullet fragments determined that a gun Merritt pawned was used in four of the shootings on Aug. 29 and 30. A tour bus, SUV and two cars were hit by bullets on Interstate 10 on those days.

"Today we are seeing the end result of some incredible police work," he said at a news conference.

Graves declined to comment on Merritt's statement in court that his gun was in the pawn shop at the time of the shootings and similar statements made by his family.

"The evidence as you'll see in the next couple of days speaks for itself," Graves said. "We're not going to get in a debate about that."

Tom Mangan, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has been assisting in the investigation, said the evidence gathered by DPS leaves "no doubt" the gun used was the one owned and pawned by Merritt.

According to Mangan, a bullet contains certain land and groove impressions after it's been fired that are unique to a particular firearm. Firearms examiners would have test-fired the suspect's gun and found impressions in the bullet that matched any ballistic evidence recovered from the shooting scenes.

"That's a very lucky investigative lead that that gun wasn't destroyed or thrown into the bottom of a river or buried," Mangan said.

A man who identified himself as a manager at Mo-Money Pawn declined to comment Saturday beyond a post on a Facebook page that said detectives contacted the shop Wednesday looking for a certain caliber and make of handgun and examined several weapons.

Eleven vehicles in all were hit by bullets or other projectiles, such as BBs or pellets, while driving along Phoenix freeways between Aug. 29 and Sept. 10. There have been no serious injuries, although a 13-year-old girl's ear was cut by glass when a bullet shattered a car window.

Department of Public Safety Director Frank Milstead said the investigation continues into who is behind the other shootings.

"Are there others out there? Are there copycats? That is possible," he said.

Graves said detectives interrogated Merritt "virtually all night."

"There's some elation here that this piece of the pie has been solved, but we are still feverishly working to wrap up all these loose ends," he said.

Messages seeking tips about the shootings will remain posted on electronic signs along freeways, and a $50,000 reward is still available, Graves said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Merritt's father was adamant that his son had nothing to do with the shootings and anyone who says he was involved is a "moron."

Leslie Merritt Sr. said he believes his son is being made a scapegoat by police who were desperate to make an arrest under immense public pressure.

"He has way too much value for human life to even take the slightest or remotest risk of actually injuring someone," the elder Merritt said. He said his son likes guns but is not a criminal.

Merritt Jr.'s Facebook page, confirmed by his father, has two video clips that show him firing guns into the desert toward a palm tree, exclaiming "whoo" after squeezing off a round.

The Wal-Mart where Merritt Jr. was arrested Friday is 6 miles north of where some of the shootings occurred along I-10, a major route through the city.

The shootings prompted several school districts to keep their buses off freeways, and some commuters altered their routes.

Sarah Madder, of Phoenix, said she'll stay off I-10 for a few more days despite the arrest.

"It seems like there had to have been more than one person," Madder said Saturday. "If it calms down for a while, I'll get back on."

Dustin Ramirez, who was getting fuel at a Phoenix gas station, said there are still a lot of open questions if Merritt is suspected of only four of the 11 confirmed shootings.

"It's a little unnerving, but you got to admire their ability to catch the guy in the first place," Ramirez said.

Meanwhile Friday, a judge ordered the release of a 19-year-old man who was arrested on an alleged probation violation Sept. 11 and questioned regarding the shootings. Authorities have declined to explain the man's connection to the case but said he was not a prime suspect. According to Graves, "We know where he is. We're still interested in him."

Three young men also were arrested and accused of hurling rocks at cars with slingshots in a case that authorities called a copycat to the shootings.

___

Associated Press writer Bob Christie contributed to this report.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-09-20

[NeverSure]

Hmmm. What date was the gun pawned? Who had possession of it? Have they looked at pawn shop employees? More than one shooter, or just more than one gun? From a pawnshop?

This will be interesting.

Cheers.

[Seastallion]

Hmmm. What date was the gun pawned? Who had possession of it? Have they looked at pawn shop employees? More than one shooter, or just more than one gun? From a pawnshop?

This will be interesting.

Cheers.

Yep, that's the way I'm looking at it too, but, "Graves said. "We're not going to get in a debate about that."".

Furthermore, it appears they have forensic ballistic evidence from "bullet fragments"....I think it's possibly a bit far-fetched to use fragments in a science (ballistics) that has been proved in laboratories with whole bullets. Once you have fragments only, all sorts of permutations of the "fingerprint" of the bullet are possible.

[NeverSure]

Actually they need only a fragment of the bullet. When the rifle barrel is machined including putting the riflings into it, there are distinct microscopic tooling marks left in the barrel. Those marks are transferred to the bullet as it passes through the barrel.

Riflings are made by pulling a cutting tool that also twists as it pulls. That puts marks that are unique to that situation inside the entire barrel. All they have to do is match any part of the bullet to that part of the barrel and it's a ringer.

When they get a suspected gun they fire a test bullet from it and compare that to crime scene bullets.

I just didn't read how they know who had possession of the gun.

Edited September 20, 2015 by NeverSure

[Seastallion]

I understand ballistics. My point is that after a catastrophic impact that leaves only fragments, who can say with certainty that microscopic marks imprinted on the metal came from where, the rifling or the impact?

The premise behind the science is similar to that behind dactyloscopy, and relies on probability of the same permutations of a pattern being coincidentally replicated. The smaller the sample, and the greater other outside forces have affected the sample, that probability goes down.

I don't know. Maybe they have good bullet fragments to work with. But from the outset, it looks like they are desperate to pin this on anybody, and it wouldn't surprise me if a few ballistics patterns looked even just "possible", that they'd jump at the chance to make an arrest.

[robblok]

I understand ballistics. My point is that after a catastrophic impact that leaves only fragments, who can say with certainty that microscopic marks imprinted on the metal came from where, the rifling or the impact?

The premise behind the science is similar to that behind dactyloscopy, and relies on probability of the same permutations of a pattern being coincidentally replicated. The smaller the sample, and the greater other outside forces have affected the sample, that probability goes down.

I don't know. Maybe they have good bullet fragments to work with. But from the outset, it looks like they are desperate to pin this on anybody, and it wouldn't surprise me if a few ballistics patterns looked even just "possible", that they'd jump at the chance to make an arrest.

It would not be the first time the police under pressure gets the wrong guy. Countless of stories some even in my own country of police getting the wrong guy. Not saying that this is the case but its not totally unusual for police to make mistakes or get pressured. It certainly does not only happen in Thailand (probably more here) but even in the US more then a few death row inmates have been set free after they were cleared.

[Credo]

They do it on CSI all the time.

Here, however, it's also a matter of not only the gun, but who was shooting it.

As Neversure said, interesting.

[robblok]

They do it on CSI all the time.

Here, however, it's also a matter of not only the gun, but who was shooting it.

As Neversure said, interesting.

If all the things they did on CSI were that easy there would be a lot more solved cases. I don't doubt that certain things are possible but not with the ease they show it on CSI (also believe the probability is lower as they make people believe)

Does not mean they are wrong, but it pays to not trust the police for a full 100% all the time.

[Credo]

There was a bit of facetiousness in the comment about CSI.

The science of ballistics is pretty good and it's especially pretty good in the US.

Part of the proof will be in seeing if the shootings now stop. Or if they stopped after the guy was apprehended.

[BudRight]

It's not a "debate" to ask how the shooter or anyone else used the gun while it was sitting in a pawnshop display case, it's an observation of fundamental breach of logic.

[MiKT]

It's not a "debate" to ask how the shooter or anyone else used the gun while it was sitting in a pawnshop display case, it's an observation of fundamental breach of logic.

Check with Murdoch.

[hawker9000]

The guy, and the quality of the investigation, will get their day in court. The accused probably didn't do himself any favors with his onscreen performance, but no sane point in pre-assessing the police case here. Let it play out in court and then let the police demonization begin, as it inevitably will.

[Acharn]

Hmmm. What date was the gun pawned? Who had possession of it? Have they looked at pawn shop employees? More than one shooter, or just more than one gun? From a pawnshop?

This will be interesting.

Cheers.

Yep, that's the way I'm looking at it too, but, "Graves said. "We're not going to get in a debate about that."".

Furthermore, it appears they have forensic ballistic evidence from "bullet fragments"....I think it's possibly a bit far-fetched to use fragments in a science (ballistics) that has been proved in laboratories with whole bullets. Once you have fragments only, all sorts of permutations of the "fingerprint" of the bullet are possible.

Also, did they use the FBI laboratory? They've been caught in recent years lying about their results. Hmmm. Come to think of it, so have several state labs. Integrity in expert testimony isn't what it used to be and probably never was.

[Acharn]

They do it on CSI all the time.

Here, however, it's also a matter of not only the gun, but who was shooting it.

As Neversure said, interesting.

If all the things they did on CSI were that easy there would be a lot more solved cases. I don't doubt that certain things are possible but not with the ease they show it on CSI (also believe the probability is lower as they make people believe)

Does not mean they are wrong, but it pays to not trust the police for a full 100% all the time.

It's not only the police, although when there's a lot of pressure on them to solve a case they need to be watched with more skepticism. Prosecutors are even worse because they suborn perjury from expert witnesses.

[hugh2121]

He wasn't in possession of the gun at the time?

Never mind, he'll do.

Hmmm, not only in Asia?

[Credo]

I do believe that this will ultimately end up in the courts and the evidence had better be pretty solid. Making an arrest and getting a conviction are two entirely different things.

But have there been any other shootings on that stretch of road?

[stevenl]

I do believe that this will ultimately end up in the courts and the evidence had better be pretty solid. Making an arrest and getting a conviction are two entirely different things.

But have there been any other shootings on that stretch of road?

If I were the perp I'd stop now, after all they have someone arrested already.

I'm not convinced by the presented evidence as of yet, but then again, I would presume they'll present the real proof in court, not via the media.