Shawn Conner, a 54-year-old White/Caucasian male, was shot and killed late on September 30, 2021, during a violent confrontation outside a home in a residential neighborhood of Mesa, Arizona. Police were called just before midnight to the area near East Emelita Avenue and South Signal Butte Road, where officers arrived to find Conner and 39-year-old Ivana Liversedge lying on a sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds; both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators determined that the incident began as a dispute between two couples: Conner and Liversedge on one side, and their neighbors, Justin Keith Peterson and his wife, on the other. The tension reportedly centered on a complicated romantic situation in which Peterson had previously been in a relationship with Liversedge, a relationship that had recently ended and led to a falling out. According to reports, the argument escalated rapidly outside the home, with both couples drawing firearms during the confrontation. At one point, Peterson was said to have fired nearly three dozen shots toward Conner and Liversedge, turning a verbal dispute into a deadly barrage of gunfire in the otherwise quiet suburban street.
Police quickly identified Peterson as the primary suspect. Mesa authorities announced that the then-41-year-old neighbor had been arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and reckless discharge of a firearm in connection with Liversedge’s death. At that stage of the investigation, officials emphasized that possible additional criminal charges could be filed regarding Conner’s killing, which was still being actively reviewed by detectives. News reports described how Conner and Liversedge were acquaintances who had gone to confront Peterson and his wife, and how the confrontation over the prior relationship spiraled into gunfire on the sidewalk just outside the residence.
In the years that followed, the case proceeded through the courts. A Maricopa County jury ultimately found Justin Peterson, then 43, guilty of two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of both Conner and Liversedge, concluding that his actions during the confrontation constituted criminal homicide rather than justified self-defense. Coverage of the verdict noted that the fatal encounter began as an argument between the couples outside the Mesa home and ended with Conner and Liversedge dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Case-tracking records now list Conner’s homicide as solved, reflecting Peterson’s conviction in connection with the double killing.
