Paige Shacklett

The Republic | azcentral.com

Phoenix police found the driver of a vehicle dead of gunshot wounds after the car crashed into a south Phoenix home Tuesday night, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

Phoenix police were called to a house near 20th Street and South Mountain Avenue at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday after a resident in the area said a car had driven into a home, said Officer James Holmes, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Investigators found Manuel Ortega-Callejas, 36, dead inside the car, Holmes said, and realized after examining Ortega that he had gunshot wounds.

No one else was in the car when it went through the home's garage and into the bedroom, Holmes said. A woman and her boyfriend were inside the house at the time of the collision but did not suffer any injuries.

Blanca Fernandez was in her bedroom when she heard a large crash. Thinking that someone had broken in, she ran into her daughter's bedroom but could barely see because furniture was pushed so far back into the room.

"We went outside, and that's when we saw the vehicle completely through the garage in her bedroom," said Fernandez.

She lives in the house with her two daughters, one 4-year-old and one 18-year-old, neither of whom were in the house at the time of the crash. The car hit a storage armoire in her 4-year-old's bedroom, which moved into the bed and pushed the rest of the furniture into the doorway.

"Had she been home, she would have been sitting there when it happened," Ferndandez said.

The investigation that followed the crash lasted until about 4 a.m., and Ferndandez was not allowed inside the home, as it had become a crime scene. Authorities eventually removed the body and the vehicle and then called in a crew to clean up the garage.

Police say there are no witnesses to this shooting and no motive or suspect information, with the exception of one resident who reported hearing shots fired in the area.

Anyone with information concerning this homicide is encouraged to call Silent Witness (480) WITNESS.