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 Officers using a stun gun subdued the suspected gunman, identified
as Ryan Elliot Giroux, 41, at a vacant condominium where he had
taken refuge, some four hours after the initial shooting, Mesa
police spokesman Esteban Flores told reporters.
"At this time we believe he is responsible for each and every one of
these shootings," Flores said. Police said the motive for the
rampage was still unclear but that the initial gunfire erupted
following an argument at the motel.
By Wednesday evening, police were serving multiple search warrants
at several locations, Flores said.
He said Giroux had been "asking for something in particular," but
that police did not know if it was drugs.
Local NBC affiliate 12 News showed a man being led out of the
residential complex in a white full-body suit, his wrists shackled,
and taken to a local hospital.
"That is something investigators use if they’re going to be
protecting his clothing for evidence," Flores said of the suit.
 Giroux, of Mesa, "lives a transient lifestyle," he said.
A hospital official confirmed to Reuters that Giroux was treated at
Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa on Wednesday and released into
police custody.
Anti-hate group the Southern Poverty Law Center, citing a retired
Mesa police detective, identified Giroux as a member of skinhead and
white supremacist groups who had served prison time for burglary,
marijuana possession and attempted aggravated assault.
Flores said Giroux has "an extensive criminal background," but that
police have not yet confirmed he has white supremacist ties.
Giroux was released from his latest of several stints in state
prison in October 2013, after spending six years and three months
behind bars for attempting to commit aggravated assault, state
corrections department records show.
Wednesday's violence began at the Tri City Inn in Mesa when the
gunman opened fire on a man and two women following some kind of
altercation, then fled to a nearby restaurant where he shot and
wounded a student while carjacking another person's vehicle, Flores
said.
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He then drove to two nearby apartment complexes, shooting one person
at each, Flores said.
The man shot in the motel died, and one of the surviving victims was
in critical condition at a Phoenix-area hospital as of Wednesday
evening, police said.
"We still don't know if he's going to survive," Flores said.
Authorities did not immediately release information on the remaining
victims.
Tanya Ehrig, who said her sister was present at the motel when
gunfire erupted there, told local ABC 15 News that her sister's
boyfriend was killed in that altercation.
"I seen this whole thing blocked off and I couldn’t get a hold of
her. I couldn’t call her, I thought something was wrong with her.
And she (later) told me that her boyfriend got shot and now he’s
gone,” Ehrig said.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said in a statement he had spoken to the
mayor of Mesa and offered resources, including from the Department
of Public Safety.
(Reporting by David Schwartz in Mesa and Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan
Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia
Johnston, Lisa Lambert, Bill Trott, Eric Beech, Mohammad Zargham and
Sharon Bernstein)
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