Freeway shootings started earlier than believed

Merritt was charged with 16 felony counts: four counts of drive-by shooting, five counts of aggravated assault, three counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm, three counts of disorderly conduct and one count of endangerment, according to YourWestValley.

Those dates show that Merritt had access to the weapon during four of the 11 I-10 shooting incidents, to which investigators have forensically connected him.

State police said copycats might be shooting guns or other weapons on freeways, so the investigation remains open.

Charges were officially filed Wednesday against a man accused in some of a series of shootings along an Arizona freeway that put Phoenix-area drivers on edge.

Little else has changed in the case against Leslie Merritt Jr., who has been charged in four of the 11 confirmed shootings mostly on Interstate 10.

Agency spokesman Bart Graves said the discrepancy was caused when the driver admitted uncertainty as to when the vehicle had been hit because it had been parked at the airport August 27 and the bullet hole wasn’t noticed until August 29.

The suspect, handcuffed in a black and white striped jail uniform, insisted at Saturday’s hearing that he is not responsible for any of the shootings.

The charges stem from shootings on the Interstate-10 freeway in the metro Phoenix area that struck a Cadillac Escalade, a bus, a Kia Sorrento and a BMW, prosecutors said.

Police spent Friday watching Merritt’s home, then trailed him to the Wal-Mart, where a SWAT team moved in. “It’s got to be some sort of mistake, or someone wanted the reward”. “Apprehended moments ago”. One of the incidents, a September 8 shooting that involved a bullet, was preceded by “road rage”, the Arizona Department of Public Safety has said.

Soon after, Ducey took criticism that he was trying to win political points with an arrest that normally would be announced by the Department of Public Safety. Milstead had been briefing Ducey on developments regarding the suspect.

The husband of an American businesswoman arrested in China on claims she spied and stole state secrets says she’s being held in solitary confinement and is interrogated at least once a day.

Associated Press writer Paul Davenport contributed.