A 21-year-old man named Adalberto Cordova Torres has been arrested and is facing multiple murder charges in connection with a series of shootings in north Phoenix that left two people dead. Phoenix police apprehended Torres on December 4, after a detailed investigation utilizing ballistics linked him to each of the crime scenes, as ABC15 reported.
The first incident occurred on November 11 when police were called to a home near 7th Avenue and Greenway Parkway where bullets had been fired into a residence. No one was injured, but evidence of gunfire, which included 10 shell casings, was found at the scene. Almost two weeks later, on November 24, 45-year-old Marcus Adams was fatally shot near 19th Avenue and Greenway Road. He was struck nine times, as per surveillance video that caught the sound of the gunfire. A further shooting took place five days later on November 29, at 19th Avenue and Thunderbird Road, where 29-year-old Andreas Olguin was found dead at a bus stop from multiple gunshot wounds. The number of shots that hit Olguin was later determined to be 11, with 15 shell casings collected nearby, according to azfamily.com.
The Phoenix PD's Crime Gun Intelligence Unit discovered through the use of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, an ATF program, that the same firearm had been used in all three incidents. The ballistic evidence consisted of 39 casings in total from the crime scenes, all matching one 9mm handgun. Surveillance footage from the two murders described the suspect and noted a person fleeing the area on an electric bike, which was consistent with evidence from Cordova Torres's residence involving an e-bike matched to the crimes.
Further investigation linked Cordova Torres to the shootings, with detectives observing him leaving his residence on an electric bike and carrying a camouflage backpack, like the one seen in the surveillance footage. In an arrest that undoubtedly shook him to realize its finality, a gun was found in his backpack upon inspection by the authorities. Preliminary results indicated it was the same gun used in all three shootings. Despite his possessions being connected to the crime scenes, the motives behind Torres's actions, and whether he had any connection to the victims, remain unclear. Toni Perez, the mother of victim Andreas Olguin, expressed her grief to ABC15, saying, "For somebody to just to pull up to him, sitting at a bus stop, and unleash 11 rounds into my son's body, and drive off and leave him for dead. I'm just shocked," and revealing her son's lifelong fights against health issues since birth.
The family of Andreas Olguin has set up a GoFundMe page to cover funeral costs and is planning to hold a candlelight vigil at the bus stop where their loved one met his end. Despite the arrest and charges laid against Cordova Torres, the pain and mystery surrounding the senseless acts of violence persist for the affected families and the Phoenix community.
