Cops: Man Held in Freeway Shootings Not Main Suspect

Chief thinks more than one person is behind the attacks
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 12, 2015 3:36 PM CDT
Cops: Man Held in Freeway Shootings Not Main Suspect
A sign displays a shooter tip hotline above Interstate 10 in Phoenix.   (Patrick Breen/The Arizona Republic via AP)

A man questioned in a string of Phoenix freeway shootings is not the prime suspect and investigators are pressing ahead with leads in the case that has left the city on edge for two weeks, authorities said today. A 19-year-old man from a Phoenix suburb who was detained yesterday at a convenience store near Interstate 10 is a "person of interest," but Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves declined to say what led police to question Oscar de la Torre Munoz. He has been booked into jail on an unrelated marijuana possession charge.

DPS chief Frank Milstead, meanwhile, says he thinks multiple shooters are behind the attacks, given the differences between them. “It does not appear to be the same guy,’’ Milstead tells the Arizona Republic. “I think we have three MOs. We have one that looks like road rage, we have the bullet ones, we have the projectile ones.’’ Eleven shootings have been confirmed since Aug. 29, but, so far, none today. (More Arizona stories.)

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