Suspect with life threatening injuries following Gilbert police shooting
Oct 11, 2015, 8:44 AM | Updated: Oct 13, 2015, 5:20 pm
(Gilbert Police)
PHOENIX – Police say an argument between roommates led to a double murder in Gilbert early Sunday morning. Lieutenant Hugh White tells KTAR they received a 911 call from 33-year-old Stacey Steward who said she was having an argument with her roommate near Lindsay and Ray.
“Then we lost contact with her,” White said. “I don’t know if she hung up the phone or somehow we lost contact with her and when officers arrived they found her and the juvenile male shot in the house.”
The other victim has been identified as 17-year-old Alex Tamborski, the boyfriend of Steward’s teenage daughter. White says Steward’s daughter managed to escape and told police that the shooter was 35-year-old Matthew Crain.
For about five hours, officers searched the area until they spotted a man matching Crain’s description walking along the canal sidewalk north of Williams Field Road between Lindsay Road and Val Vista Drive which was about a mile away from the shooting location.
“They go to confront him and he runs away,” White said. “He tries to get into a position of cover. He does not respond to commands from the officer and two officers ended up firing their weapons at our suspect.”
White would not say whether a weapon was found on or near the suspect. Crain was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
“Luckily it was our officers who found him and not a citizen,” he said. “It’s just so tragic that two people lost their lives over who knows what the argument was about but certainly no argument was worth this.”