Megan Cassidy, and Ken Alltucker

The Arizona Republic

Update:Man who shot family had run ins with Oklahoma police

A northwest Phoenix family was gunned down by their son and brother in the dawning hours of Tuesday in one of the most dramatic scenes of domestic violence in the region's recent memory.

Police received the initial call at 4:43 a.m., reporting an active shooter at a house near 51st Avenue and Cactus Road. Before midmorning, all five family members would be pronounced dead and swaths of the tri-level house would be reduced to ashes.

Dead were Vic Buckner, 50, and Kimberly Buckner, 49, husband and wife, and their daughters Kaitlin, 18, and Emma, 6.

The suspected shooter, Vic and Kimberly’s 26-year-old son, Alex, was fatally shot by police after a confrontation inside the home. A police spokesman said Alex had leveled his weapon at officers, but it was unclear whether he unloaded any rounds before he was struck.

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Police on Tuesday evening were still searching for a motive in the rampage, and by 5 p.m. were just beginning to execute a search warrant inside the scorched house.

Sgt. Trent Crump, a spokesman for Phoenix police, said Alex had no notable criminal history and no documented history of mental illness.

Some family members had, however, told police that Alex had a history of drug abuse that had “changed him,” but not to the extent that they could foresee this type of violence.

“They didn’t see this coming,” Crump said. “It wasn’t one of those (instances) where they were worried or concerned about it.”

The family's dog, Bob, was rescued from the 2,360-square-foot home. The dog was trembling but seemed uninjured when he was carried away from the house by an investigator midmorning and handed off to a relative. The relative declined to comment.

Relative remembers 'last moment of joy'

Diana Marie Buckner was shocked to learn about the tragedy that took the lives of her grandchildren, son and daughter-in-law.

“Vic and his wife loved their children more than anything,” she said. “They lived in a house that was full of love.”

Diana is Vic’s stepmother, and married his father, Arthur, nearly 50 years ago.

Diana, who lives in the rural eastern Nevada town of Ely, reviewed the Buckners' history. She said the family lived in Nevada when her granddaughter Kaitilin was born.

Kimberly worked in the front office of a medical clinic, and Vic was maintenance man for a school district. The family moved to Oklahoma, where Vic took a job with AAA and the family settled in a Tulsa suburb, Owasso, before relocating to metro Phoenix earlier this decade.

They returned to metro Phoenix to be closer to Kimberly Buckner’s family, Diana said. Vic Buckner again held a position at AAA before taking a job with his current employer, Ducts Inc., a heating and air-conditioning installation and repair business based in west Phoenix. They bought a house in the 4800 block of West Sunnyside Avenue in February 2013.

Diana Buckner said that her grandson, Alex, had been diagnosed with a behavioral-health condition about the time he graduated from high school. While he struggled at times, she said, he was able to hold a job as a truck driver.

“He was a responsible person,” she said. “I just don’t know what happened recently to create this.”

Diana said her two granddaughters were extremely close despite the age difference.

The older granddaughter was a doting, loving big sister, Diana said, recalling a family trip to Southern California about two years ago. The Buckners visited Universal Studios, attended a baseball game and relaxed on the beach.

“We had a really nice time with all the family,” she said. “I didn’t realize it would be the last moment of joy we’d all have together.”

Emma: She wanted to be a ballerina

On the west side of Sunnyside Avenue, a group of five young women stood outside the police barricade Tuesday night. They had been student assistants at the preschool program at Moon Valley High School that Emma had attended two years ago.



Sylvia Avila, 19, and Paulina Bustamante, 18, remembered the girl as a spirited child who wanted to be a ballerina. They said the family was happy and loving but knew little of the child's older brother.

Both young women described Kimberly Buckner as being a nurturing figure who was "always willing to help out" and encouraged them to seek opportunities in school and financial aid for their studies.

They said the victims were like family.

"I've never had someone so close to me pass away," Bustamante said. "I don't know how it's going to be without them around."

Emma celebrated her sixth birthday last month, they said.

Bustamante added she babysat the child and brought her along for shopping trips and eating out in addition to helping her as a student teacher once a week during the preschool program.

Avila said she never expected anything like this to happen.

"It literally seemed like they had no problems. Domestic violence is something I would not expect."

Mass shooting?

Neighbors interviewed by police after the shootings reported hearing an argument 30 minutes before police were called to the house, Crump, the Phoenix police spokesman, said.

Tuesday’s attack is believed to be the city’s most lethal shooting spree since April 2015, when another Phoenix family was gunned down by one of its own.

The shooter, Driss Diaeddinn, turned the gun on himself after killing brothers Dodi Fayed, 56, and Reda Diaeddinn, 38, his mother, Kenza Benzakour, 76, and his sister-in-law, 26-year-old Meriem Ben Yahia. The massacre was reportedly sparked by a dispute over how to run the family’s limousine business.

Whether Tuesday’s attack is considered a mass shooting depends on who you ask, as there are various definitions on what types of incidents qualify.

MassShootingTracker.org, a popular crowd-sourced database of incidents, defines a mass shooting as four or more people killed or injured by gunfire, including the shooter. Mother Jones includes only incidents in which at least four people are killed, and that occur in public places.

Anti-gun-violence organization EveryTown for Gun Safety tracks mass shootings using the FBI definition — at least four people murdered with a gun.

In a study of 133 mass shootings between January 2009 and July 2015, the organization found that 57 percent were related to domestic violence, according to research director Ted Alcorn.

The organization continues to maintain the database since the study.

“Today marks the 144th mass shooting,” Alcorn said.

Republic reporters Garrett Mitchell and Alicia Gonzales contributed to this article.

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