Arizona man left a trail of six bodies, police believe, then added his own

The killings in Arizona began Thursday afternoon, and they continued with alarming frequency.

First there was Steven E. Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist known for his work on high-profile cases like the JonBenét Ramsey investigation. He was shot outside his office in northeast Phoenix.

The next afternoon, Veleria Sharp, 48, a paralegal who had been shot, was seen stumbling down a street and begging for help. When the police followed a trail of blood back to the Scottsdale, Ariz., law firm where she worked, they found Laura Anderson, 49, another paralegal who had been shot. Both women died.

Just hours later, Marshall Levine’s girlfriend found him, a 72-year-old life coach and marriage counselor, dead of two gunshot wounds in his office.

By then, ballistic evidence had convinced the authorities that the first two shootings were related. On Saturday, they got the most important of more than 100 tips — one that would lead them to Dwight Lamon Jones, a man who had a connection to all of the deceased through a bitter divorce proceeding several years ago.

By Monday they felt they had a solid case against Jones, 56. The police arrived at an Extended Stay America hotel in Scottsdale and surreptitiously began to evacuate guests.

Jones opened fire on the police. Just after 8 a.m., he was discovered dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his room.

On Sunday, the police learned of the deaths of a man and a woman at a home in Fountain Hills, about 15 miles east of the other shootings. That brought the killings they believe he carried out to six in about 96 hours.

“In law enforcement, we don’t have the benefit of saying we were successful when lives are lost,” Sheriff Paul Penzone of Maricopa County said at a news conference, calling Jones’ actions “the worst of humanity.”