On August 28, 2022, a

mass shooting A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers use a firearm to Gun violence, kill or injure multiple individuals in rapid succession. There is no widely accepted specific definition, and different organizations tracking su ...

occurred outside of a

Days Inn Days Inn is a hotel chain headquartered in the United States. It was founded in 1970 by Cecil B. Day, who opened the first location in Tybee Island, Georgia. The brand is now a part of the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Parsippany ...

motel in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. The perpetrator, Isaiah Steven Williams, a 24-year-old man wearing tactical equipment and armed with a

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

and

explosive weapons An explosive weapon is a weapon that uses an explosive to project blast wave, blast and/or fragmentation (weaponry), fragmentation from a point of detonation. In the common practice of State (polity), states, explosive weapons are generally the p ...

, killed two people and wounded five others, including two police officers. A

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...

ensued between the perpetrator and law enforcement before the incident ended when Williams committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

Shooting

At around 8:25p.m., Williams was observed on closed-circuit television cameras leaving a Days Inn Motel room that he had booked wearing a tactical vest, riot helmet and gas mask. He was also carrying a semi-automatic

AR-15–style rifle An AR-15–style rifle is a lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on or similar to the Colt AR-15 design. The Colt model removed the selective fire feature of its predecessor, the original ArmaLite AR-15, which is a scaled-down derivative of t ...

and

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...

, both of which would later be used in the attack. At 8:28 p.m., Williams was observed exiting the lobby of the motel, and immediately began to open fire on vehicles and buildings in his vicinity. 2022_Phoenix_shooting_CCTV

Seconds after shooting at random, a white car pulled into the motel parking lot and parked. Williams approached the vehicle, which had five occupants, and began systematically shooting through the windows, killing the driver and one other person. The three other occupants ran off, and were uninjured in the shooting. After shooting at the car, Williams stepped back and continued to walk around the parking lot, shooting at vehicles and other structures at random. Williams discharged at least 12 rounds from his rifle during this phase of the shooting, which was also caught on video. Williams then walked towards an occupied restaurant and lit the Molotov cocktail before throwing it at one of the restaurant's windows, although the window did not break. After the Molotov cocktail failed to explode, Williams encountered multiple bystanders who were observing the shooting, but he did not let off any shots. Williams continued to walk around the parking lot for several minutes, firing several shots, many of which hit observers of the shooting. Police arrived at the scene of the shooting at around the same time, and were immediately hit with gunfire when they stepped out of their patrol vehicle. Both officers in the vehicle were injured, but none of the injuries were fatal. One of the officers shot at Williams, although he was not hit. A short time later the gunfire ceased and police walked up to Williams, who had killed himself with his rifle. During a later investigation, it was revealed that Williams also had several

stun grenades A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade, flashbang, thunderflash, or sound bomb, is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy's senses. Upon detonation, a stun grenade produces a blinding flash of light and an ...

in his possession, which were unused in the shooting. It was also revealed that the assailant discharged his rifle nearly 200 times during the skirmish.

Aftermath

2022 Phoenix shooting parking lot attack

Victims

Williams killed two people; they were identified as Karla Garzona and Misael Arévalo, both of whom were inside of a vehicle that Williams shot into. Five others, including three civilians and two police officers, were wounded by gunfire. One of the officers was shot in the shoulder, while the second was hit by shrapnel "in several places." The officer who was shot in the shoulder was sent to a hospital, while the three civilians were released without needed extensive medical treatment.

Investigation

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the

Phoenix Police Department The Phoenix Police Department is the law enforcement agency responsible for the city of Phoenix, Arizona. As of May 2024, the Phoenix Police Department comprises just over 2,500 officers, some 625 below authorized strength of 3,125 and more than ...

investigated Williams' motive. An internal investigation determining the legality of the officers' actions was carried out by the

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

Attorney's Office, although the results of the investigation have not been made public.

Perpetrator

The Phoenix Police Department identified the shooter as Isaiah Steven Williams, who was 24 at the time of the shooting. Williams had graduated with a film studies degree from the

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

prior the shooting, but was struggling to find a job. Although Williams had once expressed interest in becoming a police officer or soldier, he began posting

anti-police Anti-police sentiment is opposition to the police by groups or individuals. This sentiment can arise from perceptions of systemic issues within policing institutions, such as misconduct, excessive use of force, racial profiling, and corruption. ...

and anti-government messages on several social media platforms in 2020, calling both systems "corrupt." In April 2022, Williams' parents, concerned that he might harm himself, confiscated multiple weapons from him, including an AR-15–style rifle and a

handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...

. Several weeks before the shooting, Williams sold his car; and on the day of the shooting, he had expressed to a friend his desire to fight for the Kurdish forces in Iraq because "he wanted to fight for something." In those text messages, Williams has also recommended a book called ''

The Destruction of Black Civilization Chancellor Williams (December 22, 1893 – December 7, 1992) was an American sociologist, historian and writer. He is well known for his work on African civilizations prior to encounters with Europeans; his most notable work is ''The Destruction ...

''.

References