Edward Dalton Decker, a 27-year-old white male from Tucson, Arizona, was killed by gunfire in the early morning hours of July 9, 2018, during a shooting on the northwest side of the city. He was found by deputies from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department after they were dispatched around 1 a.m. to reports of shots fired in the area of the 5000 block of North Myakka Avenue and the 2600 block of West Diamond Street, near the I-10 and Ruthrauff Road corridor.
Responding deputies located Decker at the scene with at least one apparent gunshot wound, and he was pronounced dead there.
At the same location, deputies also found another man, identified in news coverage as Robert Allen Oliver Jr., suffering from injuries sustained in the same incident. He was transported to a hospital for treatment. Around the same time, Northwest Medical Center in Tucson notified authorities that yet another individual had arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound, though deputies publicly stated they were unsure whether that injury was connected to the shooting that claimed Decker’s life. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s homicide unit took over the investigation, and officials asked anyone with information to contact 911 or the anonymous tip line 88-CRIME, emphasizing that details were limited and the case was still being actively investigated.
Subsequent entries in national gun-violence tracking databases and memorial sites continued to list Decker as a victim of a fatal shooting in Tucson on July 9, 2018, confirming that he died at the scene and that the incident involved both a fatality and at least one non-fatal injury. A burial record shows that he was later interred at South Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Tucson, underscoring his ties to the local community.
Online, Decker is remembered by family and friends as a beloved relative whose death came amid a period of repeated loss for his family. A fundraiser organized shortly after the shooting described his death as unexpected and noted that relatives were struggling with the emotional and financial strain of burying multiple close family members in a short span of time. Comments posted to an online gun-violence memorial page portray him as deeply loved, with contributors sharing personal memories and describing the impact of his loss on their lives.
As of the most recent updates available from case-tracking and memorial sites in 2024–2025, no public record indicates that a suspect has been named, arrested, or charged in connection with Decker’s killing. The case continues to appear in databases focused on unsolved or open violent deaths in Arizona, and the case summary inviting the public to share “any updates” suggests that investigators have not publicly announced a resolution. In the absence of official statements identifying a perpetrator, the available online information points to Decker’s death remaining an open homicide investigation, with no suspects publicly identified and no arrests reported.
