Andrew Austin, a 23-year-old White/Caucasian man, was fatally shot in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 15, 2022. The violence unfolded shortly before 5 p.m. near 43rd Avenue and Olive Avenue in north Phoenix. Officers responding to reports of a shooting found Austin suffering from gunshot wounds. He was transported to a hospital, but despite efforts to save him, he died from his injuries.
The investigation quickly developed into a homicide case involving several people.
According to information provided to investigators, Austin had been approached by three individuals shortly before he was shot. A witness told police that the men asked Austin whether he wanted to buy fentanyl. When Austin refused, the encounter escalated and he was shot.
During the early stages of the investigation, police focused heavily on Aeneas Ryan Harman, who was 22 at the time. Court documents cited in local news reports initially stated that surveillance footage appeared to show Harman shooting Austin. Investigators said Harman's distinctive facial tattoos helped them identify him by comparing images from the surveillance footage with a previous prison photograph. Harman had been released from prison less than a year before Austin's death after serving time for aggravated assault and theft.
Harman was arrested several weeks after the killing and initially faced serious charges that included homicide, robbery and a probation violation. As the case developed, however, the prosecution ultimately involved two additional defendants: Calvin Burns and 13-year-old Tyrell Coy. The roles attributed to the three defendants were more complicated than the information released during the initial investigation suggested.
Harman was characterized as the alleged "shot caller" in the group, while Coy was accused of acting as the getaway driver. Coy's young age made his involvement especially striking, as he was only 13 when Austin was killed. Although both Harman and Coy faced allegations connected to Austin's death, the charges against them were ultimately dropped. Neither Harman nor Coy was convicted of Austin's murder.
Calvin Burns was the defendant who was ultimately held criminally responsible for Austin's killing. Burns was convicted in connection with the murder and received an 18-year prison sentence. His conviction and sentence established a substantially different final outcome from the earliest reports in the case, which had concentrated primarily on Harman following his arrest.
The disposition is important because the initial public account of the investigation identified Harman as the suspected shooter based on what authorities said surveillance evidence showed. As the prosecution progressed, however, it was Burns who ultimately received the prison sentence for murdering Austin, while the cases against Harman and Coy were dismissed. The reasons prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges against Harman and Coy are not clearly explained in the readily available public reporting.
Harman later faced an unrelated criminal prosecution involving fentanyl. In that separate case, undercover officers accused him of selling fentanyl pills, and he was charged with two counts involving the sale or offer to sell narcotic drugs. Harman later cut off his ankle monitor and absconded before trial, resulting in his being tried in absentia. A jury convicted him on one narcotics count, and he received a 15.75-year prison sentence as a repetitive offender. The Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed that conviction and sentence in August 2025. That sentence was unrelated to Austin's murder and should not be confused with the homicide case.
Austin's killing therefore resulted in a complicated prosecution involving three alleged participants and an investigation whose early public narrative did not fully reflect its eventual outcome. Harman was initially arrested and publicly identified as a principal suspect, Coy was accused of helping the group escape, and Burns ultimately became the person convicted of the murder. Burns received 18 years in prison, while the charges against Harman and Coy connected to Austin's death were dropped.
