In the early morning hours of a Sunday in Phoenix, Arizona, a late-night party took a tragic and violent turn, ending the life of 43-year-old Carlos Roberto Santos-Noriega. The gathering, held at a house near 46th Street and McDowell Road on August 14, 2022, was filled with people when a physical altercation erupted among several men. In the midst of the chaos, one of the individuals involved in the fight produced a handgun.
As he attempted to flee the scene, the gunman fired multiple
shots into the crowd of partygoers. The indiscriminate gunfire struck several people, causing widespread panic and injury. When the Phoenix Police Department responded to reports of the shooting at approximately 2:00 a.m., they discovered a scene of mayhem with multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Mr. Santos-Noriega was found at the scene and was pronounced deceased by the fire department.
In the immediate aftermath, witnesses at the party were able to detain the alleged shooter, holding him down until law enforcement arrived and took him into custody. The suspect was identified as 18-year-old Bryan Sapon-Deleon. In addition to the tragic death of Santos-Noriega, four other individuals were wounded in the shooting, including a juvenile female who sustained life-threatening injuries. An adult female in her mid-40s, an adult male in his early 50s, and another adult male in his early 20s all suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Following the incident, Bryan Sapon-Deleon was transported to a local hospital for a non-life-threatening laceration he sustained during the altercation. Upon his release, he was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on August 16, 2022. He faces charges of first-degree murder for the death of Carlos Roberto Santos-Noriega, as well as multiple felony counts of aggravated assault for the injuries inflicted upon the other victims. The investigation into the deadly shooting continued as detectives processed the scene and interviewed numerous witnesses to piece together the events of that fatal night.
