2022 Phoenix Mass Shooting By Isaiah Williams - Suggested Reading Destruction Of Black Civilization

At approximately 8:30 p.m. MDT, the Phoenix Police Department began receiving emergency calls reporting shots fired in the parking lot of a Days Inn motel in northern Phoenix. Footage from the motel's security cameras shows the shooter leaving his motel room and exiting the building. The shooter was armed with a rifle, a pistol, and a Molotov cocktail.[3] He was wearing tactical gear such as a Kevlar helmet, a "carrier-type" ballistic vest, gas mask, and knee pads.Show more

After exiting the motel, the shooter began firing randomly at vehicles and buildings. As he walked through the parking lot, a white car pulled in; the shooter opened fire on the vehicle, killing two people. Several passengers inside the vehicle fled as the shooter fired at them. The gunman then approached a Waffle House restaurant and threw his Molotov cocktail at a window; the cocktail broke without igniting. The gunman pointed his rifle at several bystanders, but did not fire.For the next several minutes, the shooter fired at random; several people were wounded and multiple rounds struck nearby businesses and vehicles.

At 8:44 p.m., two police officers arrived at the scene; the shooter shot at them, wounding both. One officer returned fire, but missed the retreating gunman. The shooter eventually stopped firing, allowing police to retrieve a wounded officer and transport him to a hospital. Officers approached the gunman's location and found him dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Investigators recovered 200 spent shell casings, five empty magazines, unused stun grenades, and "other tactical equipment." The aftermath of the incident was recorded by officers' body cameras.

Victims
Two people were killed by the gunman; they were identified as 44-year-old Karla Garzona and 36-year-old Misael Arevalo.Five others, including three civilians and two police officers, were wounded by gunfire. One of the officers was shot in the shoulder, while the second was hit by shrapnel "in various places."The officer shot in the shoulder was sent to a hospital, while the three civilians were all released.

Perpetrator
The Phoenix Police Department identified the shooter as 24-year-old Isaiah Steven Williams. Williams had graduated with a film studies degree from Arizona State University prior to the shooting, but was struggling to find a job.[6][3] Although Williams had once expressed interest in becoming a police officer or soldier, he began posting anti-police and anti-government messages on social media in 2020, calling both systems "corrupt." In April 2022, Williams' parents, concerned that he may hurt himself, confiscated multiple weapons from him, including an AR-15 style rifle and a handgun.[6] Several weeks before the shooting, Williams sold his car; on the day of the shooting, he had expressed to a friend his desire to fight for the Kurdish forces in Iraq because he "wanted to fight for something."In text messages, Williams recommended a book called The Destruction of Black Civilization.