Claire M Roney

The Republic | azcentral.com

Two men, one a Motel 6 employee, were killed and another motel employee was in extremely critical condition after a Sunday-night crime spree that included a pair of carjackings and a shooting at the motel along Interstate 17.

The gunman, identified by police as ex-convict Daterryn McBride, 28, shot himself in the head after a police chase and has died, according to a Phoenix police spokesman. Investigators were searching for a motive.

In all, five people suffered gunshot injuries at McBride's hand in confrontations that began about 10:30 p.m. and culminated with McBride shooting himself after a miles-long chase through central and south Phoenix, police said. No motive had yet been determined for McBride's actions, and the police investigation was continuing.

Officers said McBride approached the lobby area of a Motel 6, near I-17 and Northern Avenue, and shot three men, killing motel employee Brian Harris, 44; and Robert Sykes, 44. A 25-year-old motel employee also was shot and was listed in extremely critical condition at a hospital Monday afternoon.

A man, 46, and a woman, 32, who stopped at the motel with an intent to get a room, saw a man with a gun and tried to flee. They were shot in their pickup truck and were treated at a hotel for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The shooter then ran to a nearby apartment complex where he carjacked a vehicle from a couple with a 4-month-old baby, police said.

McBride forced the male occupant into the car and drove the vehicle until it broke down on I-17, police said, at which point he stole another vehicle at gunpoint and led police on a chase that ended in south Phoenix.

Police followed McBride to the south end of 16th Street, where he crashed his vehicle and fled into a field, police said. Quickly confronted by officers, he shot himself in the head, said Officer James Holmes, Phoenix police spokesman.

McBride served 7½ years in the Arizona Department of Corrections on aggravated-assault and misconduct-involving-weapons charges in a 2004 case and was sentenced to another two years on a 2012 charge of misconduct involving weapons. He was released from DOC custody in August 2014.