In the early morning hours of December 20, 2019, David Morales, a 23-year-old Hispanic male from Phoenix, Arizona, was found fatally shot outside an apartment complex along East McDowell Road. Authorities place the scene at roughly 3:23 a.m. in the area of 2433 East McDowell Road, a multi-building complex just east of downtown, where officers and emergency crews responded and located him unresponsive in the parking lot.
Despite emergency efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene, and the case was immediately treated as a homicide by Phoenix police.
Witness information and subsequent bulletins indicate that, shortly before he was discovered, Morales had been in the company of an unknown, heavy-set man. Silent Witness materials describe that he was last known to be with this individual in the same McDowell Road area where he was later found, suggesting that the encounter in or near the apartment complex parking lot quickly escalated into gunfire. The shooting happened at a quiet, predawn hour when few people were outside, limiting the number of potential eyewitnesses who could describe exactly what led up to the lethal confrontation.
Investigators released a detailed description of the suspected gunman and appealed to the public for help. The suspect was described as a heavy-set Black man in his 20s, roughly 5'10" to around 6 feet tall and estimated at 230 to 250 pounds, with dark curly hair, a full beard, and brown eyes. Early media reports and law-enforcement flyers stated that he was last seen wearing a blue-and-white hat along with a blue-and-white hooded sweatshirt, and that he was believed to have left the scene after the shooting. Crime-stoppers organizations emphasized that he should be considered armed and dangerous, urging anyone who might recognize him or have seen him with Morales that night to come forward.
To encourage tips, Silent Witness offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest or indictment of the person responsible, making Morales’s case one of the many Phoenix homicides for which community cooperation is seen as crucial. The homicide is listed on both Silent Witness and regional cold-case listings, which repeat the same essential facts: the time and location, the circumstances of Morales being found in the parking lot, and the description of the unknown man last seen with him. These organizations, along with memorial sites that honor gun-violence victims, continue to circulate his story and the suspect description, underscoring that the case remains open.
As of the most recent public information, there have been no announced arrests or charges in connection with the shooting. Crime-tracking and victim-advocacy sites still categorize the killing as an unsolved homicide, and the Silent Witness reward notice remains active, indicating that investigators are still seeking critical leads. In the years since his death, online memorials and case summaries have preserved David Morales’s name and the core details of what happened to him, while repeatedly calling on anyone who knows more about the suspect or the events of that morning to speak up so that his family and community can finally see someone held accountable.
