Frank Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said that some of the violence could have been carried out by “copycats”.
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Phoenix residents were on edge over the random gunfire in and around I-10 between August . 29 and September 10.
Leslie Allen Merritt, 21, was arraigned on multiple charges, including four counts each of carrying out a drive-by shooting and intentional acts of terrorism. The only person who has been injured in the violence was a 13-year-old girl who was cut by flying glass.
Les Merritt Senior says because of the arrest, his son’s Facebook videos showing him shooting targets and firing a weapon with his young son are being taken out of context.
However, Merritt and his family are saying that the wrong man has been caught. My gun’s been in the pawn shop for the last two months.
Police have linked Merritt to the first four shootings but warned there could be still be “copycat” shooters and that an investigation remained under way. SWAT team members apprehended him in at a Walmart in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb.
Merritt’s father insisted to The Associated Press that his son had no involvement in the shootings and that anyone who accuses him of it is a “moron”.
Miami-Dade Police are on the scene after, they said, an off-duty public service aide was forced to shoot at six German Shepherds after they reportedly attacked his own dog.
Graves wouldn’t comment on a statement Merritt made in court Saturday that his gun had been in a pawn shop for the past two months. Three of the shootings involved unspecified projectiles and eight involved bullets, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
A suspect in Phoenix’s recent highway shootings denied Saturday he had anything to do with the case as a judge set his bail at $1 million.
“He has way too much value for human life to even take the slightest or remotest risk of actually injuring someone”, Leslie said.
Authorities had been monitoring pawn shops that had bought or loaned a firearm that matched the make of any of the guns used on the freeway, Graves said.
The Wal-Mart where Merritt Jr. was arrested Friday is 6 miles north of where some of the shootings occurred along I-10, a major route through the city.
The shootings prompted several school districts to keep their buses off freeways, and some motorists altered their commutes to avoid driving I-10.
The suspect has no connection to a man who was questioned by police about the shootings earlier in the week, Graves said.
DPS said state troopers stepped up patrols, while other agencies assisting in the investigation have included Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa police as well as the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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He urged residents to stay alert and call authorities if they have any information related to the shootings.
