On the evening of September 6, 2021, Arturo Enriquez Marmolejo, a 24-year-old Hispanic/Latino male, was at his Phoenix residence near 24th Street and McDowell Road when the events that ended his life unfolded. Around 8 p.m., Phoenix police were dispatched to an apartment complex in the 1900 block of North 26th Place after reports of gunfire. Officers arrived to find Arturo suffering from at least one gunshot wound near one of the apartments.
First responders rushed him to a local hospital, but despite medical efforts he was pronounced dead shortly afterward.
Investigators determined that the shooting occurred outside, in front of the residence he shared with family. News reports and police advisories indicate that after the shots were fired, a black Dodge Durango was seen fleeing the area, becoming a key focus of the investigation. Silent Witness and other crime-tip organizations later circulated flyers and online notices describing the vehicle and asking for the public’s help, emphasizing that detectives were seeking any information about who was in that SUV or involved in the attack.
Accounts from Arturo’s family describe the night in more personal detail. According to an interview his sister gave to local media, Arturo had just recently met his firstborn child and was preparing for his overnight construction shift when someone knocked at the door of their home. Before getting into the shower, he went to answer the knock; when he opened the door, an unknown assailant fired multiple shots, striking him once. Another brother, who had been asleep, reportedly awoke to the sound of the gunfire, came out, and found Arturo lying on the floor, after which emergency services were called.
In the months and years that followed, Arturo’s family consistently described him as loving, caring, and devoted to his new child, with hopes of building a stable future and plans to attend college. Relatives have spoken publicly about the pain of losing him so suddenly and the difficulty of moving forward while his case remains unresolved. They have appeared in television segments and supported reward-fund efforts designed to generate new leads, repeatedly appealing to anyone with information about the shooter or the black Dodge Durango to come forward so that they can gain some measure of closure.
As of the most recent reports available, Phoenix police have not announced any arrests in connection with the homicide. Public crime-tip pages, Silent Witness case listings, and subsequent news stories all continue to list the suspect or suspects as unknown, and describe the investigation as open, with the murder characterized as an unsolved case. Authorities have not publicly identified a motive, and there is no indication in accessible records that any specific individual has been named as a suspect.
