A 35-year-old man shot at a west Phoenix apartment complex in late June has died, and Phoenix police say the 16-year-old suspect accused of shooting him will now be charged with homicide. Jesus Herrera Maykar was found shot near 27th and Maryland avenues on June 28 and was hospitalized before he was pronounced dead on August 7, according to police.
Police said the teenager allegedly shot and killed Herrera Maykar during the June 28 incident, and officers say he ran from the scene before being taken into custody. As reported by AZ Family, investigators say the Phoenix Police Real-Time Operations Center helped locate the fleeing suspect, and police also recovered the gun reportedly used in the shooting. Police are not identifying the suspect because he is a minor.
Because Herrera Maykar's death came weeks after the shooting, the charge against the teenager has now been upgraded to homicide, per the same report. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-501, prosecutors are required to charge 16-year-olds accused of murder as adults, meaning the case is expected to move through adult criminal court rather than the juvenile system, according to the Shah Law Firm. The statute effectively bypasses juvenile court jurisdiction for teenagers aged 15 to 17 facing homicide allegations.
How Police Tracked Down the Suspect
The technology credited with helping locate the suspect traces back to the Cactus Park Precinct, where Phoenix Police launched its first Real-Time Operations Center in March 2024 specifically to monitor the high-crime 27th Avenue corridor. The center integrates license-plate readers, gunshot detection technology, and live video surveillance to give officers real-time situational awareness during active violent incidents, according to the City of Phoenix. That surveillance infrastructure sits within a broader push, the 27th Avenue Corridor Community Safety and Crime Prevention Plan, which the city formally enacted in 2022 to target persistent violent crime, prostitution, and drug activity along the I-17 corridor through multi-agency enforcement.
Grand Canyon University has also invested in the area's surveillance network, opening its own Public Safety Dispatch and Real Time Operations Center at 27th Avenue in February 2025 to coordinate private campus camera feeds with Phoenix police, according to GCU News. The university says it has invested more than $170 million in redevelopment and safety initiatives along the corridor.
A Corridor With a Violent History
The intersection of 27th and Maryland avenues has seen extreme violence before. In March 2022, a suspect opened fire on a passing patrol car at that same intersection, wounding two Phoenix police officers in an ambush that left 18 shell casings at the scene, as reported by KTAR News. That attack resulted in attempted homicide charges.
The June 28 shooting also follows a pattern of recent gun violence along the same commercial stretch of 27th Avenue. Less than a month before Herrera Maykar was shot, four young men between the ages of 18 and 20 were wounded in a parking lot shooting following an argument near 27th Avenue and Bethany Home Road, Hoodline previously reported. State troopers in the area at the time reported hearing rapid gunfire before officers responded.
Citywide Crime Trends Amid Local Violence
The shooting comes even as broader crime data shows improvement citywide. Major Cities Chiefs Association data reported by Axios showed violent crime in Phoenix across major categories declined during the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier, matching broader national trends among major metropolitan police departments. Still, Phoenix's homicide rate has remained a persistent concern; data compiled by the Council on Criminal Justice showed that during the first half of 2025, Phoenix recorded a homicide rate twice as high as New York City's, according to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
Response times for priority-one calls involving active shootings and other life-threatening emergencies averaged six to nine minutes in 2026 amid ongoing department staffing shortages, with response speeds varying significantly by precinct, according to data from Omnilert. It remains unclear what relationship, if any, existed between Herrera Maykar and the teenage suspect, and Maricopa County prosecutors have not yet detailed how the case will formally proceed through adult court.
