Jacques Bourdeau, a 44-year-old father, was having a friend over for dinner with his cousins at his Mesa, Arizona, home on the evening of March 7, 2023. A White man, Bourdeau received a call from a 19-year-old acquaintance, Elliot Bennett, who said he was also coming over. Bourdeau described Bennett to his guests as a friend.
When Bennett arrived at the residence on South Essex Lane, Bourdeau went outside to meet him in the front yard.
A short time later, witnesses inside the house heard gunshots. Bourdeau ran back into the home, exclaiming, “he just shot at me,” and locked the doors. As Bennett allegedly forced his way into the house by breaking through a door, Bourdeau and his female friend took refuge in a bathroom and locked the door. The friend later told police she heard footsteps coming down the hall before the bathroom door was broken down. She said Bennett then shot Bourdeau multiple times, and he fell into the bathtub. After the attack, the gunman fled in a gray sedan.
Mesa police officers responded to a call of shots fired at approximately 7:30 p.m. They discovered Bourdeau inside the home with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced him dead at the scene. Witness statements and area traffic cameras quickly led investigators to identify Elliot Bennett as the suspect.
Two days later, on March 9, Mesa police arrested Bennett at his residence in Lake Havasu City, about 200 miles away. During questioning, Bennett denied having traveled to Mesa or having any recent contact with Bourdeau. He told police he believed he was being questioned because of "rumors" that he had killed a man.
A Maricopa County grand jury later indicted Elliot Bennett on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and endangerment. After undergoing court-ordered psychiatric testing, Bennett was found to understand the legal proceedings and was able to assist in his own defense. As of October 2023, he was ruled competent to stand trial, with pretrial hearings scheduled into 2024 to determine dates for jury selection and other proceedings.
