After a dayslong series of shootings in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, Ariz., police have found the suspect dead at a hotel Monday morning.
According to the Washington Post, Sgt. Vince Lewis, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, said the suspect, who has not yet been identified, fired multiple gunshots from inside the room while the hotel was being evacuated and was later found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The first victim in the shooting spree was forensic psychiatrist Steven Pitt, 59, whom police said was shot outside his office Thursday afternoon. He had consulted in high-profile murder cases, including the 1996 killing of child beauty pageant star JonBenet Ramsey. According to police, an eyewitness said he heard Pitt arguing with another person shortly before the gunshots. Law enforcement officials told ABC News that this was the only witness in any of the cases.
On Friday, two paralegals were also shot and killed. Veleria Sharp, 48, and Laura Anderson, 49, both worked for the family law firm Burt, Feldman, Grenier. Police said one of the women, after being shot in the head, got out of the building and crawled into a limo where she alerted the driver of the situation. Police followed the victim’s blood trail to the other victim, who was shot dead in a law office.
Psychologist and counselor Marshall Levine, 72, was found dead in his office by an acquaintance just after midnight on Saturday. His murder has been linked to the same gun used in the other three murders.
The shooter’s motives remain unclear, and so far the police only have one suspect. Some speculate that Pitt could have been killed because of his profession, as it involved studying the minds of criminals.
“When Dr. Pitt was shot, it was speculated among a good number of people that it could be tied to a case,” Justin Yentes, a private investigator in Phoenix who works with criminal defense attorneys in the area, told the Washington Post. “We work around these types of situations. There’s always a risk that you’ve upset the wrong person, I suppose. The general belief was that there was an upset party in a case that was potentially seeking revenge.”
