In the early morning hours of August 30, 2024, Phoenix police were called to reports of gunfire at a Circle K convenience store near 17th Avenue and Van Buren Street, just west of downtown. Officers arrived around 12:30 a.m. to find Jesus Erlandson-Gonzales Jr., a 22-year-old Hispanic / Latino male, and another man lying in the parking area with gunshot wounds. Phoenix Fire Department personnel pronounced both men dead at the scene.
According to a media advisory from the Phoenix Police Department and multiple local news outlets, detectives determined that an argument had broken out between Erlandson-Gonzales and 20-year-old Andres Wilkes inside or immediately outside the convenience store. Investigators believe Erlandson-Gonzales instigated that confrontation, which escalated rapidly from a verbal dispute into an exchange of gunfire between the two men. Both were struck during the shootout, and there were no reports of additional victims or bystanders being injured.
The fatal encounter took place near the intersection of 1700 West Van Buren Street, a busy corridor lined with small businesses and gas stations. Witness information has not been detailed publicly; news reports note only that officers found the scene already quiet except for the two mortally wounded men when they arrived. Homicide detectives processed the parking lot and surrounding area for evidence and collected surveillance footage from the Circle K and nearby properties as part of their reconstruction of the sequence of events that led to the gunfight.
Public case summaries compiled from police information describe Erlandson-Gonzales as one of two victims of “death by force” in the incident and note that the altercation at the convenience store escalated into a mutual shootout. Those summaries, which track the status of homicide investigations, list the case as “solved” with the primary suspect deceased, indicating that authorities concluded the person deemed primarily responsible for initiating the violence died during the same exchange of gunfire.
Loved ones have memorialized Erlandson-Gonzales online as an outgoing, protective, and caring person with a strong sense of humor, remembered as a devoted father, brother, and uncle who brought laughter to family gatherings and was deeply involved in the life of his young child. Messages posted in his memory speak of him as a bright soul and “one of a kind,” and hundreds of virtual candles have been lit to mark his death from gun violence in Phoenix on August 30, 2024.
As of the most recent publicly available information, police have not announced any arrests connected to this case. Because both men involved in the shootout died at the scene, investigators have not indicated that they are searching for any additional suspects, and there is no record of charges being filed against anyone else in relation to the shooting. Case-tracking databases that compile official statements from the Phoenix Police Department reflect that the primary suspect is deceased and that no outstanding offenders are identified in Erlandson-Gonzales’s death.
