Lillian Gamboa, a 31-year-old Hispanic woman, spent the final hours of her life on Tucson’s south side, near the busy stretch of West Irvington Road that cuts through working-class neighborhoods and strip malls. Late on the night of September 26, 2024, just before 11:30 p.m., Tucson police officers were dispatched to the 500 block of West Irvington Road in response to reports of an aggravated assault.
When they arrived, they found Lillian suffering from gunshot wounds, gravely injured in the darkness along the roadside. Officers immediately called for Tucson Fire Department medics and tried to save her using their medical kits, but despite those efforts she was pronounced dead at the scene.
As word of the shooting spread, the scene quickly shifted from a chaotic emergency response to a careful homicide investigation. Detectives from the Tucson Police Department’s Homicide Unit were called out in the night and began the meticulous work that follows a killing: interviewing witnesses, canvassing the surrounding area and nearby businesses, and processing physical evidence left behind by the gunfire. Officers initially detained multiple people who happened to be in the area, trying to understand who had seen what and whether the shooter might still be nearby. Even after hours of work, detectives were left without a clearly identified suspect, and the department publicly urged anyone with information to contact 911 or the anonymous tip line at 88-CRIME, signaling that they believed the community held answers that had not yet reached the police.
In the days that followed, forensic testing and follow-up interviews slowly reshaped the outline of the case. According to Tucson police, investigators came to focus on 29-year-old Liam Andrew Devoid, who had been in the area around the time of the shooting. Several hours after Lillian was killed, Devoid contacted police to report that his vehicle had been stolen roughly an hour before the homicide, a claim that drew scrutiny as detectives compared his account with physical and forensic evidence. After reviewing that evidence and conducting additional interviews, detectives concluded they had enough to identify him as the suspect in Lillian’s death.
Police ultimately arrested Devoid and, as the case moved forward, he faced a slate of serious felony charges. Tucson authorities announced that he had been charged with first-degree murder, drive-by shooting, and false reporting to law enforcement, reflecting both the deadly nature of the gunfire and investigators’ belief that his stolen-vehicle report was intended to mislead them. After his arrest he was booked into the Pima County Jail, where records indicated he was being held while the investigation continued and the case moved into the courts. Public statements from Tucson police emphasized that, like all defendants, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and they again encouraged anyone with additional information to come forward, underscoring that the full story of what led to the gunfire on Irvington Road was still being pieced together.
Beyond the police reports and court filings, Lillian’s death has been marked in quieter ways by those who knew and loved her, and by strangers who recognized the tragedy of her loss. Online memorials list her among the many people “lost to gun violence” in Tucson, noting her age and the date she was killed, and inviting visitors to light virtual candles in her honor. Her name now sits alongside others on lists maintained by gun-violence tracking organizations, which record that she was shot and killed while the man identified as the suspect survived and was taken into custody. For her family and community, the legal process and any future trial will be one chapter in a longer story of grief, remembrance, and the search for justice for a young woman whose life ended on a late-September night beside a Tucson roadway.
