On March 19, 2019, Jorge Rodriguez, a 30-year-old male from Phoenix, Arizona, was at a house party in a neighborhood near Interstate 17 and North 27th Avenue when the gathering turned deadly. In the early hours of the morning, gunfire erupted inside and outside the home, leaving Rodriguez and 17-year-old Shelby Verderosa fatally wounded and four other men injured.
Police and news reports describe the scene as a chaotic mass shooting, with six people in total struck by bullets; Rodriguez and Verderosa were pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators later outlined a sequence of escalating conflict that led up to the shooting. Witnesses told police that a man who had been at the party, identified as 29-year-old Jeffery believed his wallet or keys had been stolen while he was there. He left the gathering angry, then returned to the house around 9:30 p.m., confronting people inside and accusing someone of taking his property. When that confrontation became physical, partygoers forced him out of the home. Several hours later, at about 3:30 a.m., he allegedly returned a second time, this time armed with a handgun, and opened fire on people inside and around the residence.
Responding officers arrived after a 911 call reporting shots fired and multiple victims. They found an unresponsive man in the front yard who was later identified as Rodriguez, along with other people suffering from gunshot wounds outside the home. Inside, officers followed blood trails and located additional victims, including Verderosa, who was discovered unresponsive in the living room. Shell casings were scattered throughout the residence, and investigators traced a trail of blood leading toward a back door, illustrating how victims tried to flee the gunfire. Four wounded men, ranging in age from their late teens to mid-50s, were transported to hospitals and were expected to survive their injuries.
Detectives quickly focused on Rhone as the suspected shooter. Before the attack, his roommate in Glendale had contacted police to report that his firearm was missing and that Rhone had taken it; the roommate said he did not want to press charges, but wanted the gun returned. After the shooting, investigators recovered. 40-caliber shell casings at the scene that matched the caliber of the missing weapon. Later that morning, around 10:30 a.m. on March 20, a detective spotted the Jeep Cherokee Rhone was believed to be driving near 33rd Avenue and Northern. When marked patrol units arrived, Rhone reportedly stepped out of the vehicle, raised his hands, and surrendered without incident.
Rhone was arrested and booked into jail on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Jorge Rodriguez and Shelby Verderosa, along with four counts of aggravated assault, one count of first-degree burglary, and one count of disorderly conduct with a firearm. Phoenix police and multiple news outlets described him as the sole suspect in the shooting, emphasizing that the violence appeared to stem from the dispute over the allegedly stolen wallet and prior tensions at the party rather than a random attack. Public case summaries and victim memorial sites list Rodriguez’s case as “solved” in the sense that a suspect was identified, arrested, and charged, though publicly available sources do not detail the eventual outcome of the criminal proceedings against Rhone.
