Authorities haven’t named any suspects in the other shootings, and have said some of the incidents may have been the work of copycats. Already a timeline has been shifted in the case.
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“All I’ve got to say is you’ve got the wrong guy,” Merritt told a court commissioner at his arraignment, according to the Arizona Republic.
A 13-year-old girl was injured by broken glass after one shooting, but no other injuries and no fatalities were reported.
Merritt is scheduled for a court status conference Friday, but that hearing could be canceled if prosecutors seek a formal indictment.
He is only accused in four of the shootings on I-10 that occurred between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30, although seven other cars and trucks were hit by either gunfire or projectiles over the next 12 days. His father, Leslie Merritt Sr., even made an emotional appeal to the media to proclaim his son’s innocence.
Police have said the suspect was “forensically linked” to the first four shootings along Interstate 10 in downtown Phoenix.
Leslie Allen Merritt faces 16 felony charges but managed to avoid the terrorism charges that police had originally sought. “I tried telling the detectives that”, Merritt said at his initial appearance.
Leading up to the arrest, Arizona DPS searched area pawn shops for a handgun that could have been the source of the bullet fragments collected from the four shooting incidents. Each time, he would have had to present identification, given a fingerprint and been on video, plus undergone an Federal Bureau of Investigation background check to retrieve the weapon.
An American businesswoman arrested in China on claims she spied and stole state secrets is being held in solitary confinement and is interrogated at least once a day, her husband said Wednesday. They collected matching weapons from pawn shops, test-fired them and came up with a match to one Merritt had pawned.
Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves told reporters then that officials were not “going to get into a debate” with Merritt. The auto was parked at an airport August. 27 and retrieved August. 30.
After spending Friday watching the landscaper’s home, they trailed him to the Wal-Mart, and a SWAT team moved in.
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The date change comes because the driver of a BMW that was hit was not sure when the shooting happened, Graves said.
