1 killed, 3 wounded in Phoenix drive-by

PHOENIX A woman was killed and three other people wounded Friday in a drive-by shooting in a south Phoenix neighborhood, police said.

Authorities were searching for a dark green Ford Expedition after they say four men in the vehicle pulled up to the home around 2:30 p.m. and someone fired multiple rounds.

The four victims were gathered in the home's front yard just a few feet from the road, Phoenix police Sgt. Steve Martos said.

A woman in her 50s and another in her 20s were transported from the scene in critical condition. Martos said the older woman later died. Another woman and a man in his 20s suffered non-life threatening injuries in the shooting, he said.

None of the victims' names were immediately released.

Martos said it's unclear if any of the victims were related, but some neighbors, who declined to be identified, said two of the victims lived in the home and the two others were visiting. Martos said authorities were investigating a possible gang connection. He did not elaborate.

"These types of incidents historically are targeted but it's too early in the investigation to determine if that's the fact here," he said.

Arizona Department of Public Safety officers were assisting Phoenix police in the search for the suspects.

Yellow crime scene tape blocked off the roads around the single story brick home, its windows covered from the inside with tin foil. At least 20 bullet shell casings were marked with white evidence cards scattered around the sidewalk just in front of the house, which sat across the street from a sign designating the area a drug and gang-free zone.

The shooting occurred just two days after a man opened fired at a Phoenix office building in a dispute over a lawsuit, killing two people and injuring a third. Police said the gunman — Arthur Douglas Harmon, 70 — was found dead early Thursday in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

[qc-canada]

sickofwhiners: ...Also Phoenix is the major distribution hub for Mexican drug smugglers. I don't know if that had anything to do with this incident, but it definitely brings them people that do not care about shooting people.

The whole gun violence issue, in my mind as Canadian, is summed up in the last part of your argument. ....People that do not care about shooting people.

All we see are that. Whether stemming from anger, revolt, despair it all comes around to that - the 'couldn't care less how many I kill' or 'how many I kill along with me' attitude

[qc-canada]

sickofwhiners: ...Also Phoenix is the major distribution hub for Mexican drug smugglers. I don't know if that had anything to do with this incident, but it definitely brings them people that do not care about shooting people.

The whole gun violence issue, in my mind as Canadian, is summed up in the last part of your argument. ....People that do not care about shooting people.

All we see are that. Whether stemming from anger, revolt, despair it all comes around to that - the 'couldn't care less how many I kill' or 'how many I kill along with me' attitude

[dj4240]

The only thing that this has to do with the gun control issue is how these thugs and criminals are getting these guns...Only 1 % of all shootings in this country are done with rifles and more people were killed last year with hammers then with rifles..By far the most shootings are done by criminal thugs shooting other thugs with illegal handgun guns..and far to often innocent bystanders are shot too.

[judymar14]

It would be helpful if the discription of the killers was given. But...

Thankfully no assualt rifles were used. I'd say, ban dark green Expedition Fords.

[IBBuckshot]

I lived in Phoenix 28 years and left in 1989. South Phoenix has Always been a hot spot for crime. Why is this in the national news today?

[judymar14]

It would be nice to know the make-up of the people in south Phoenix. Could it be the same as on the southside of Chicago?

Phoenix will be stigmatized for killings taken place in one part of the city as in the 77% of the 500 murders in Chicago last year.

[erasmus111]

OMG! I'm shocked!

[lami987]

Many U.S. cities big and small are packed with guns and full of gun violence. Its time to tell our republican friends to stop that crazy spending cuts. We should in fact significantly increase numbers of police every where and also significantly increase their pays. May be we should cut pays to those spending cut sponsors and divert the money to hire more police and to increase their pay. Could NRA contribute a little bit of their profits to improve our police forces around the country, I wonder?

[legacyabq]

Except in Chicago.. Remember Machine-Gun Kelly?

[CuriousServant]

Guns don't kill people. People with guns kill people.

[EvolvedLiberal]

South Phoenix is not a good place to be after dark. They have a big problem with criminals running loose. They should enforce the law, put the criminals in jail and keep them there. But as the story bias implies, it is a lot easier to blame the NRA than it is to look in the mirror.

[MIO42]

Lets just face the facts
The gun issue is out of Control
It's not fixable ,it's going to get a way lot worse and the efforts being made are like painting the Sistine Chapel
With a Q-Tip