New tests lead to shooting case's undoing in Phoenix

PHOENIX-Leslie Merritt Jr. sat in a police interrogation room, unaware of why he had just been swarmed by SWAT officers and whisked away in handcuffs.

"Why do you think you would be here?" the detective asked.

"I have no idea, man. Traffic ticket or something," Merritt replied.

Not even close.

After weeks of random shootings on Phoenix freeways that rattled residents, police believed they had their man.

The interrogation went on for more than two hours, culminating with the detective telling him that ballistics experts had matched his handgun to four of the 11 shootings and they had him on video pulling the trigger. The latter was a lie. The former would eventually be the undoing of it all.

Seven months after Merritt's arrest, the entire case fell apart, leading to his release, the dismissal of charges, allegations of a botched investigation and a gunman authorities dubbed a domestic terrorist possibly still on the loose.

Police believe the shootings began Aug. 27 and continued until Sept. 10. Investigators determined eight of the incidents were bullet strikes while the remaining three were some other projectiles. They also believed that while they had a serial shooter on the loose, some of the crimes were likely copycats.

Miraculously, no one was seriously injured.

Charter bus driver Robert McDonald first thought he hit something while on Interstate 10 on Aug. 29. But when McDonald stopped his empty bus, he was shocked to see what appeared to be a bullet hole.

Police arrived 20 minutes later.

"It hadn't really hit me that somebody took a shot at me," said McDonald, who still has trouble sleeping.

Before Merritt's capture, authorities faced mounting pressure to solve the case. They flooded the highways with patrol cars. They monitored freeway cameras. And signs posted over roadways offered drivers a tip line to call in suspicious activity.

Then came a break in the case. It was the morning of Sept. 11, a day after the last shooting. Cops had a lead. They swooped in with guns drawn and arrested a 19-year-old man they called a person of interest.

"It was good police work," Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said at the time.

The man was released a week later. No connection.

The investigation continued with a renewed sense of urgency.

Experts examined bullets retrieved from the crime scenes until they say they determined the exact type of weapon used in the shootings. Detectives fanned out to pawn shops, hoping for a lucky break, retrieving every one of those guns and running tests until the DPS crime lab found a match. It was Sept. 17. The firearm was traced back to Merritt.

He was arrested a day later.

Upcoming Events