Phoenix police arrest Ernest Lee Mcallum after woman found shot to death in bathroom

PHOENIX - Phoenix police arrested a man suspected of shooting a woman with an Uzi in her bathroom late Thursday night.

According to court documents, the female victim was identified as Bethany Grace Lewin.

Two witnesses at the residence near 70th Street and Thunderbird were reportedly picking up their trailer from the location when a man, identified as Ernest Lee Mcallum, walked out of the home with an Uzi firearm with what is described as a silencer.

Mcallum told the witnesses outside of the residence that he had "popped" the female, which the witnesses believed to mean that he had killed the woman they knew inside.

Court documents state that after speaking with the witnesses, officers were dispatched to the home to conduct a welfare check on the woman living there.

Officers entered the home through an unlocked back door, finding the woman sitting on the toilet in her bathroom with her shirt pulled up, her pants around her ankles and a gunshot wound to the head.

There were broken items in the bathroom, leading responding officers to believe that there was some type of struggle that ensued within the room.

One of the witnesses told detectives that the the suspect had dismantled his firearm after telling them that he had shot the woman inside. He also stated that his son, who was in his 20s, picked up the shell casings.

The suspect then proceeded to put the pieces of the gun into a black backpack and left with his son on a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

The witnesses positively identified the suspect through a series of photographs and the suspect was arrested at his home.

He initially denied ever being at the victim's home. He then changed his story and said that he was at the home but was not armed and did not know the woman who lived in the home.

Blood spatter was found on the suspect's shoes, but it's unclear at this time whether the blood matches that of the victim.

Blood spatter in the bathroom was consistent with a gun shot at short range, court documents show. 

Police found the Harley Davidson motorcycle to be registered under the suspect's wife's mother's name.

Police also say the suspect's wife remembered seeing him arrive at their apartment complex around 11 p.m. on the motorcycle with a black backpack.

The suspect also denied claims that he traveled on his motorcycle to the victim's home.

Neighbors in the area were reluctant to speak on camera, but told ABC15 that they had concerns about what was happening at the home and suspected drugs.

Sadly, they also said that there were two young children living at the home.