On February 26, 2023, Anthony Jones, a 31-year-old Black male from Phoenix, Arizona, was fatally shot during a drive-by attack outside a house party in the west part of the city. In the early morning hours, around 3:00–3:05 a.m., Phoenix police were called to reports of gunfire in a neighborhood just south of Lower Buckeye Road near 71st–75th Avenue, where a large gathering had been taking place.
When officers arrived, they found Jones and another man suffering from gunshot wounds; Jones was rushed to a hospital, where he later died, while the second victim was treated for comparatively minor injuries at the scene.
According to investigative summaries, Jones and a group of friends had left the party and were walking back to their vehicle when a newer-model black Chevrolet Camaro came southbound on 71st Drive toward them. The car reportedly stopped abruptly in the street, and there was some kind of dispute or confrontation between the group and the people in the vehicle, including complaints about the Camaro’s erratic driving. At that point, multiple shots were fired from inside the car, striking Jones and his companion as well as several parked vehicles in the neighborhood and even an occupied home before the Camaro sped off, continuing south out of the area.
Initial public appeals described the shooter only in broad terms. Silent Witness and related cold-case listings noted that investigators were looking for the driver of the black Camaro, described as a Hispanic male, and emphasized that the incident had sprayed gunfire through a residential street, endangering not just Jones and his friends but nearby residents whose cars and home were hit by bullets. A cash reward was offered for information that could help identify and locate those responsible, and authorities urged anyone with knowledge of the vehicle, its occupants, or the events leading up to the shooting to come forward.
Several months later, in mid-June 2023, local media reported that an arrest had been made in connection with the February house-party shooting. A 12News crime update stated that a 20-year-old man had been taken into custody in relation to the case, describing how one of the victims had approached the unknown black Camaro to confront the occupants about their driving before gunshots erupted from the car, leaving two men wounded and one dead. The report linked the arrest to the same late-February incident near 75th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road and reiterated that the confrontation in the street immediately preceded the shooting. However, the publicly accessible portion of that coverage does not provide the suspect’s name or detail the subsequent court proceedings, so the ultimate legal outcome and current status of the case remain unclear from open sources.
Beyond the bare facts of the crime, online memorials offer a glimpse of who Jones was in life. A profile on the National Gun Violence Memorial records his death on February 26, 2023, in Phoenix and includes contributions from friends and family who describe him as fun-loving, “solid,” and an “amazing leader” who worked hard, including at the Marshalls Phoenix distribution center. Loved ones mention his role as a father, naming children such as Melanie and Madelyn, and leave messages expressing disbelief at his loss and a determination to see the person responsible held accountable, with one commenter vowing that the perpetrator would end up behind bars.
