PHOENIX — A man and woman are dead, and a child was found safe, after an apparent murder-suicide in Phoenix early Monday morning.
Police say they attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle near 7th Avenue and Dobbins Road sometime around 2:30 a.m. Monday.
The driver, identified by police as 23-year-old Alexis Torres, left the scene and barricaded himself in a nearby home. A child was later discovered in Torres' vehicle after he ran into the home.
Police say the child, a three-year-old, was believed to have been taken by Torres around 10 p.m. Sunday night from a home in Avondale.
As authorities negotiated with Torres, he reportedly shot himself. Torres was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Approximately an hour later, police were called to the area near 67th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road for a report of a woman who had been shot.
Police located a 30-year-old woman in the roadway with multiple gunshot wounds, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect in the shooting had left the area in a vehicle, which police later learned was Torres' vehicle involved in the earlier traffic stop.
Police say the child was later returned to family members unharmed and that Torres previously was in a relationship with the woman, but is not the child's father or legal guardian.
Police say the woman killed in the shooting was the child's mother.
Court records indicate Torres entered into a plea agreement in 2021 for an aggravated assault charge stemming from when Torres pointed a gun at a father and the man’s 10- and 15-year-old daughters while the father was picking them up from school.
The Department of Corrections told ABC15 on Tuesday that "Torres was sentenced to five years on 8/10/2021 and was given 145 days of jail credit for time served. He earned an absolute discharge on 6/21/2025 as he was eligible for a temporary release per statute and ADCRR policy, upon release he began his term of probation with Maricopa County.”
Officials are investigating what led up to the series of events.
