In the early morning hours of November 22, 2023, a violent encounter in a Glendale, Arizona, neighborhood claimed the life of Mar'Quane McQueen. Mr. McQueen, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot and killed in an incident that also left another man seriously wounded.
The chaotic events began to unfold around 3 a.m. A Glendale police officer conducting an unrelated traffic stop near 61st Avenue and Bethany Home Road was approached by a 30-year-old man seeking help for a gunshot wound.
The man was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. At the same time, police were alerted by the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system and multiple 911 calls to a shooting that had occurred just west of that location, near 68th Avenue and Rancho Drive. When officers arrived, they found Mar'Quane McQueen on the sidewalk. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators found a man in the front yard of a nearby home and detained him for questioning. Through interviews with witnesses and a review of surveillance footage from the area, detectives determined that a verbal altercation had occurred between the man and the two victims just before the shooting. Police stated that the man and the victims knew each other and that the shooting was an isolated incident.
Based on the evidence gathered at the scene, authorities arrested the man they had detained, 27-year-old Steven Gonzalez. He was booked into jail and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and unlawful discharge of a firearm. As of November 2023, the case against Mr. Gonzalez was proceeding through the justice system.
