In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, September 6, 2015, gunfire rang out around the Premiere Inn near West Peoria Avenue and the Black Canyon Highway, just off Interstate 17 in north Phoenix, Arizona. Police officers who were already in the area heard the shots and moved toward the motel’s parking lot, where they found an adult man lying on the ground with a gunshot wound. Emergency crews provided aid on scene before rushing him to a nearby hospital, but he did not survive his injuries.
That man was Rodney Puckett, a 41-year-old Black/African American male.
Public records and online memorials describe Rodney as someone whose life was cut short by gun violence in Phoenix that day. He is remembered on a national gun-violence memorial site, which notes that he was “lost to gun violence” on September 6, 2015, and that people who knew him have lit virtual candles in his memory. Some of the personal details shared there portray him as a down-to-earth, goofy, kind-hearted person who worked in trucking, suggesting a man who was part of the working community and loved by those around him.
Information released by authorities and summarized in later case write-ups indicates that officers responded to reports of shots fired at about 1:30 a.m. and discovered Rodney wounded in the motel parking lot. After speaking with witnesses, police reportedly detained two individuals who may have been involved in the shooting, but no clear motive was identified at the time. A separate news report from the following day emphasized that investigators were still searching for a man described only as a “person of interest” in the deadly hotel shooting and appealed to the public to contact Silent Witness with any information, underscoring that detectives did not yet have a resolved suspect narrative to present to the community.
Years later, online case summaries and discussion forums continue to talk about Rodney’s death in the context of an open, unresolved killing. Posts from community members express frustration and sorrow that his family still does not have clear answers about who is responsible, and case listings still frame the shooting as an unsolved homicide with no publicly documented arrests or convictions tied directly to his murder.
