On the night of August 10, 2025, 18-year-old Aris Raynee Brito Jr., a Black/African American male from Tucson, Arizona, was shot and killed while sitting in a vehicle at the Campbell Ranch Apartments on East Roger Road. Around 9 p.m., Tucson Police officers and Tucson Fire crews were dispatched to the complex after multiple reports of a shooting in the parking lot.
When they arrived, officers found Aris inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot trauma and immediately began trauma care until medics took over, but he did not survive his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. The apartment complex, located in the 2000 block of East Roger Road near North Campbell Avenue, was quickly cordoned off as a homicide scene while detectives began their work.
In the days following the shooting, police publicly identified Aris as the victim and notified the community that homicide detectives and the Crime Scene Unit were leading the investigation. Officers and investigators canvassed the Campbell Ranch Apartments, interviewing residents and potential witnesses and processing the parking lot and the vehicle for physical and forensic evidence. The case was added to the city’s 2025 homicide count, underscoring broader concerns about gun violence in Tucson as authorities appealed to the public for information and encouraged anyone with knowledge of what happened that night to contact police directly or leave anonymous tips through the 88-CRIME line.
Obituary notices and online memorials portray Aris as a deeply loved son, brother, grandson, cousin and friend. He was born in November 2006 to parents Tiffany Jones and Aris Brito, and worked as a merchandiser for Coca-Cola, where his strong work ethic, bright spirit and kindness left an impression on coworkers and family alike. On a national gun-violence memorial page, relatives and friends describe him as ambitious, loving and funny, someone who made people laugh and seemed to have “all the potential in the world.” Many tributes refer to him as a go-getter and “hustler” in the sense of always pushing himself and taking care of those around him, with comments from his mother, siblings, cousins and friends emphasizing how much he is missed and how drastically their lives have changed since his death.
When police first announced the case, they said the investigation was in its early stages and that they were working to identify two suspects believed to be involved in the shooting. Nearly a month later, on September 8, detectives reported that after weeks of interviews and processing additional evidence, they had obtained arrest warrants for two 17-year-old suspects. According to that update, one teenager was located and booked into the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center, while the other suspect was already being held at the Pima County Jail on an unrelated matter, and investigators added new charges to his existing case. Both teens were charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and aggravated robbery in connection with Aris’s killing, signaling that investigators believe the shooting occurred in the course of a robbery or attempted robbery, even though detailed accounts of the confrontation have not been publicly released.
Because the suspects are juveniles, their names have not been widely publicized, and all of the charges remain allegations that must be proven in court. Police have continued to describe the case as an active investigation, and they have not announced any additional suspects beyond the two teenagers already in custody. On the online memorial page for Aris, family members and friends repeatedly call for justice and express gratitude that arrests were made, with some messages specifically thanking everyone who “made sure his killers were arrested,” reflecting a sense of relief that the case has moved forward even as their grief remains raw. As of the latest public updates, the legal proceedings against the two teens are ongoing, and the community continues to follow the case while Aris’s loved ones mourn a young life cut short and remember him through candles, flowers and messages posted in his honor.
