Man arrested after police find his photo on slain Glendale woman’s cellphone

PHOENIX – Police have made an arrest in the fatal shooting of a Glendale woman who photographed the suspect before her death, authorities said Friday.

Rusty French, 62, was booked Thursday on one count of second-degree murder in the death of 60-year-old Pamela Rae Martinez, the Glendale Police Department said in a press release.

Police didn’t provide a motive, saying that Martinez and French didn’t know each other before the June 11 shooting.

Martinez was found dead after her car rolled off the road into a landscaping area near Bell Road and 61st Avenue.

Police responded to the scene around 7:30 p.m. after receiving a call about a one-vehicle accident.

A witness told police that Martinez was parked on the side of the road next to a van, and a man was outside her vehicle. The man then drove away in the van, and Martinez’s vehicle slowly headed off the roadway.

Investigators learned that Martinez had completed making food deliveries that night, although not to French, and took a photo on her cellphone of a man sitting in a van next to her vehicle.

They identified the man as French and on June 15 brought him in for questioning and executed a search warrant at his home.

“He admitted that was him in the photograph but said he must have blacked out as to what occurred,” police said in the release.

A handgun with a ballistic match to the weapon used in the shooting was found at his home, police said.

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