In the early morning hours of October 24, 2016, residents in a west Phoenix neighborhood near 31st Avenue and Pierce Street were jolted awake by the sound of a violent crash. When they looked outside, they saw a car that had slammed into a block wall or fence in front of a home, and they called 911. Phoenix police and fire crews arrived at about 4:38 a.m.
to find the vehicle heavily damaged against the barrier, with surrounding streets quickly blocked off and expected to remain closed well into the afternoon while investigators worked the scene.
Inside the car, first responders found two unresponsive occupants who, on closer examination, showed obvious signs of having been shot. Phoenix fire officials reported that both victims had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene. They were later identified as Manuel D. Sanchez, a 17-year-old male, and another man, Ronnie B. Orozco. Investigators noted that at least one firearm was recovered from inside the wrecked vehicle, and the combination of gunshot wounds and the weapon discovery led police to immediately treat the incident as a double homicide rather than a simple traffic collision. Authorities also stated that, despite the circumstances, there appeared to be no connection between this case and the separate “Serial Street Shooter” series of attacks that had been under investigation in Phoenix around the same time.
From the outset, detectives focused on reconstructing what happened before the crash: whether the shooting occurred elsewhere and the car then careened into the wall, or whether gunfire erupted as the vehicle came to a stop in front of the home. They canvassed the area for witnesses and surveillance footage and appealed publicly for information. Silent Witness, the local anonymous tip program, released a bulletin describing how residents had heard a loud crash, then police found the car with both occupants shot, and offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case, listing it under case number 2016-2998 and describing the suspect simply as “unknown.”
Despite those appeals, subsequent case summaries note that investigators “have yet to identify any suspects” in the killings. No suspect description has been released, and there have been no public announcements of arrests in connection with the deaths of Manuel D. Sanchez and Ronnie B. Orozco. As of the most recent updates nearly a decade later, the double homicide remains officially unsolved, with law enforcement still asking anyone with information about who shot the two men and why their bodies were left in the crashed car on that October morning in Phoenix to come forward.
