On Thursday, May 31, 2018, Steven Pitt, a 59-year-old male forensic psychiatrist, was shot and killed outside his Scottsdale, Arizona, office. Witnesses reported hearing a loud argument followed by gunshots. This brazen act marked the beginning of a multi-day killing spree that would terrorize the Phoenix metropolitan area and leave several people dead, all seemingly connected to a contentious divorce case from nearly a decade prior.
The investigation into Pitt's murder quickly escalated
as more victims emerged. The following day, two paralegals, Veleria Sharp, 48, and Laura Anderson, 49, were fatally shot at the law firm where they worked. This firm had represented the ex-wife of the man who would soon be identified as the primary suspect. A fourth victim, a psychologist, was discovered shot to death in his office on Saturday, though his connection was later believed to be a case of mistaken identity, as he was subletting office space from a therapist involved in the same divorce case. The discovery of two additional victims, an elderly couple in Fountain Hills, further widened the scope of the tragedy.
The suspect was identified as 56-year-old Dwight Lamon Jones. Police determined that the victims were not random but were targeted by Jones as an act of revenge stemming from his bitter divorce and custody battle finalized years earlier. Dr. Pitt had conducted a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation of Jones in 2010 and testified about his mental state, diagnosing him with anxiety and mood disorders, along with narcissistic and paranoid personality traits. The paralegals worked for the law firm that had represented his ex-wife during the proceedings.
A large-scale manhunt for Jones concluded on Monday, June 4, 2018. After tracking him for days, police surrounded his room at an Extended Stay hotel in Scottsdale. As a SWAT team moved in, Jones fired shots from within the room before ultimately taking his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No arrests were made as the sole suspect was deceased. The investigation concluded that Jones had methodically hunted and killed those he blamed for the outcome of his divorce.
