Suspect charged in 4 of 11 Arizona freeway shootings
PHOENIX — Prosecutors announced formal charges Wednesday against a 21-year-old man suspected in some of the freeway shootings that have rattled the Phoenix area.
Leslie Allen Merritt Jr. was charged with 16 counts, including aggravated assault, unlawful discharge of a weapon, disorderly conduct, endangerment and carrying out a drive-by shooting.
But prosecutors did not file terrorism charges that police originally sought against the landscaper arrested Friday night in Phoenix.
Maricopa County’s top prosecutor, Bill Montgomery, previously said Arizona’s terrorism laws enacted after 9/11 would not apply to the freeway shootings.
Using ballistics tests, detectives tied Merritt to four of the 11 shootings reported on Phoenix-area freeways, Arizona Department of Public Safety Director Frank Milstead said.
State police say copycats might be shooting guns or other weapons on freeways, so the investigation remains open.
Investigators say eight cars were hit with bullets and three were struck with projectiles such as BBs or pellets, most while driving along Interstate 10 in metropolitan Phoenix. Only one person was injured in the shootings: On Aug. 29, a bullet pierced the windshield of an SUV on I10, and the broken glass slightly cut a 13-year-old passenger.
Merritt is charged in that shooting and three others where state police recovered bullet fragments from vehicles.
Merritt said at his initial appearance Saturday that officers arrested the wrong person, claiming his gun had been in a pawn shop for two months.
But the owner of the Mo Money Pawn Shop in Phoenix said Wednesday that he had turned over logs and surveillance video that showed Merritt pawned the gun Aug. 30.
That puts Merritt’s pawning of his gun after the four shootings he’s charged with.
He had previously pawned and retrieved his gun twice since July, pawn shop owner Eric Baker said.