A 54-year-old convicted felon accused of cutting the power to a Glendale home before ambushing three people outside now faces first-degree murder charges after the man he allegedly targeted died roughly a month later from his injuries. Gary Laverne Minor was booked into Maricopa County jail on six felony counts, including murder and drive-by shooting, in connection with an August 3 attack that investigators say was fueled by jealousy over his wife's past relationship with the victim.
Power Cut Minutes Before Gunfire
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, the home on West Cavalier Drive lost electrical power shortly before gunfire erupted around 2:40 a.m. Surveillance video reviewed by investigators showed a heavy-set person cutting power to the main electrical box just minutes before the shooting began, the outlet reported. When three residents stepped outside to investigate the outage, police say an armed suspect wearing a headlamp ambushed them, firing multiple gunshots from a silver sedan before fleeing the scene.
The ambush, which occurred near 91st Avenue and Cardinals Way in Glendale, left three people wounded. One of them — the man police believe was Minor's primary target — died approximately one month later from his injuries, transforming the case from aggravated assault into a first-degree murder investigation, per the same account from FOX 10 Phoenix.
Tech and Digital Trail Led to Arrest
Investigators leaned heavily on Glendale's surveillance infrastructure to build the case. The Glendale Police Department's Real Time Crime Center, operational since 2019, integrates more than 1,700 CCTV cameras, automated license plate readers, and computer-aided dispatch to give detectives live intelligence. Police used that system along with license plate readers to trace Minor's registered silver Kia Forte leaving the area after the shooting, the report notes.
Cell phone records placed Minor's device near the victims' home at the time of the attack, and a subsequent search warrant turned up a headlamp in his car matching the one worn by the suspect during the ambush. Investigators believe Minor orchestrated the shooting out of jealousy over his wife's prior romantic relationship with the man, who had provided her housing while Minor served a previous prison sentence.
Wife's Statements and a Facebook Messenger Confession
Minor's wife told detectives that he admitted to the shooting during a phone call, and investigators allege Minor said via Facebook Messenger that he wanted to get “the joy out of doing it” himself — denying that he had hired someone else to pull the trigger. The article was reported by FOX 10 Phoenix's Elias Weiss, gathered from Glendale Police Department records and Maricopa County Superior Court filings.
The case also surfaces a documented history of violence. Minor was previously convicted of holding his wife against her will at gunpoint inside a Phoenix hotel room, a 2017 standoff that stretched 15 hours near Interstate 17 and Peoria Avenue and resulted in kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, aggravated assault, and unlawful flight charges, according to AP News. That prior arrest, and what investigators describe as a pattern of possessive and violent behavior toward his wife, forms part of the backdrop to the August ambush.
Six Felony Charges, $2.2 Million Bond
Minor now faces six felony charges, including first-degree murder and drive-by shooting. Under Arizona Revised Statute § 13-1105, first-degree murder is a Class 1 felony carrying a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment or death upon conviction, according to AZ Defenders. Drive-by shooting, meanwhile, is a Class 2 dangerous felony under Arizona Revised Statute § 13-1209 that carries a mandatory 7 to 21 years in prison for a first offense, along with mandatory vehicle forfeiture and driver's license revocation, per the Tamou Law Group.
Minor is being held on a $2.2 million bond. Maricopa County Superior Court judicial officers typically impose multi-million-dollar cash bonds in cases involving Class 1 violent felonies where defendants present elevated public safety risks or flight concerns, according to the Ramos Law Firm. He is due back in court Thursday.
A City Leaning on Surveillance Amid a Downward Crime Trend
The arrest comes even as Glendale has recorded an overall decline in violent crime. Total violent crime in the city — encompassing murder, aggravated assault, robbery, and sexual assault — fell 9.75 percent in 2025 compared to the year before, dropping to 1,139 reported incidents, according to YourValley.net. Glendale had recorded 20 murders in 2024, and municipal crime analysis pegs the annual tangible cost of crime in the city at $471 per resident, slightly above the national average, per OpenCrime.
The city's ability to trace vehicles like Minor's Kia Forte stems partly from its expanded license plate reader network, which uses Flock Safety technology supported in part by a 2022 federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant and logs more than 775,000 vehicle scans annually, according to the Atlas of Surveillance. Founded in 1906, the Glendale Police Department now employs nearly 300 sworn officers across patrol and specialized divisions, including a dedicated Violent Crime Interdiction Team, as Hoodline has previously reported.
This case adds to a string of shooting investigations Glendale police have handled in recent months, including an August standoff near 75th Avenue in which a suspect fired at officers, a March drive-by near a Glendale emergency room, and a multi-victim shooting at the Westgate Entertainment District over the Fourth of July. Each incident has drawn on the same combination of camera networks, license plate data, and old-fashioned digital forensics that investigators say ultimately tied Minor to the West Cavalier Drive ambush.
