Debbie Barnette, a 65-year-old White / Caucasian woman, was shot during a violent incident linked to an escalating dispute with a neighbor in Tucson, Arizona, after multiple homes in her midtown neighborhood were set on fire with incendiary devices on the evening of March 14, 2019. She was found critically wounded near the intersection of Roger Road and Campbell Avenue, in the area of East Duke Street, and was rushed to Banner–University Medical Center, where she later died from her injuries
after spending several days in the hospital.
According to police and subsequent reporting, the events began when officers were called for a disturbance between neighbors in that residential area. When they arrived, they discovered several houses burning and evidence that a flammable or incendiary item had been thrown at the structures; investigators later concluded that three neighboring homes had effectively been “fire bombed” during the attack. Near the scene, officers located Barnette gravely wounded from gunfire, and they also found her neighbor, 54-year-old Donald W. Shoemaker, suffering from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Fire crews and police worked simultaneously to control the blazes and secure the area while medical personnel transported both Barnette and Shoemaker to the hospital.
Follow-up investigations by Tucson police determined that Shoemaker was the person who had ignited or thrown incendiary devices at the homes and then shot Barnette before turning the gun on himself. He remained on life support for several days and died in the hospital on March 24, 2019. Because the only identified suspect in the shooting and arson died of his injuries, no formal arrest was ever made in the case, and online case-tracking records describe the matter as solved with the primary suspect deceased.
