DPS investigating 'road rage' shooting near Loop 101 in Peoria

Department of Public Safety officials said it was incredible nobody died in what officials described as an "isolated road rage shooting incident" near Loop 101 and Bell Road in Peoria.

"The fact that we don't have someone fatally injured today is incredible," DPS spokesman Raul Garcia told reporters at a press briefing Saturday afternoon. No one was injured in the attack.

"It hasn't been ruled out that this is isolated", he added, hinting that Saturday's shooting was unrelated to any of the string of 11 freeway shooting incidents that gripped metro Phoenix in late August and early September.

The DPS arrested and charged a 21-year-old landscaper from Glendale on suspicion of the first four attacks, but warned at the time the others might have involved copy-cat shooters. Garcia warned again of the danger of copy-cat shooters Saturday.

Earlier, a gray Honda Civic was going northbound on the freeway just south of Bell Road at around 11 a.m. when a tan pickup truck pulled up on the car's left side, Garcia said. A person inside the truck then "fired multiple shots out of the passenger window" which hit the vehicle, Garcia said.

He described the suspect in the truck as a man, but offered no other details.

The driver's side window was shot multiple times and the passenger window behind it was "completely shot out," but no one was injured, Garcia said. The truck then got behind the Honda and took the Bell Road exit.

The Honda pulled into a QuikTrip gas station near 83rd Avenue and Union Hills Drive with holes along the left-hand side of the car and the passenger side window. Police taped off the area around the car, which was then towed just before 2 p.m.

Saturday’s isolated shooting comes after a string of 11 shootings along Interstate 10 that began Aug. 22 and left some area residents afraid to drive on the freeway.

On Sept. 18 DPS officials arrested Leslie Allen Merritt Jr., on suspicion of being connected to the first four shootings. He was charged with drive-by shooting and discharging a firearm within city limits, along with criminal damage, endangerment and disorderly conduct charges. A county grand jury dropped intentional act of terrorism charges.

Merritt Jr. entered a plea of not guilty to all remaining counts on Thursday and could face up to 100 years in prison if convicted for all of them.

Jason Lamm, an attorney representing Merritt Jr., tweeted out after Saturday's shooting that "my client Leslie Merritt has an alibi."

On Sept. 17, three 18-year-old men were arrested on suspicion of using slingshots to shoot projectiles at car windows, in what investigators thought were copycat attacks.

Again during a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Garcia urged against other “copycat” incidents, warning that charges could involve anything from misconduct involving weapons to manslaughter.

"This is under investigation. This has our immediate attention,” he said.

Merritt Jr.'s defense attorney Ulises Ferragut said in a phone interview Saturday he believes the shooter is still on the loose. He echoed his client's words in saying DPS got the wrong man.

"It was a rush to judgement," Ferragut said, adding he believes Merritt Jr.'s arrest to be "politically motivated."

"I don't believe that they can put him at any of the alleged shooting scenes," Ferragut said.

DPS is asking anyone with information on the suspected vehicle to call 602-223-2212.

This is an ongoing story. Check back with azcentral.com for updates. Reporters Jared MacDonald-Evoy and Garrett Mitchell contributed to this report.