James Barratt, a 42-year-old male whose race or ethnicity was not specified in public reports, was killed on March 1, 2015, after a shooting inside his Phoenix, Arizona apartment. That Sunday morning, an altercation took place inside his residence that escalated into gunfire. Neighbors later told police they became aware of the incident when Barratt, critically wounded, made his way out of his apartment and toward a nearby unit before collapsing, prompting calls for emergency assistance.
Responding officers found him suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper body, and despite efforts to save his life, he later died from his injuries.
Investigators determined that the shooting occurred during an altercation inside the apartment shortly before 10:30 a.m., but the exact circumstances of that confrontation have not been fully detailed in public accounts. The person who shot Barratt was described only as an unknown individual involved in that altercation, and initial reporting noted that this individual fled the area before officers arrived. The case was treated as a homicide, with detectives canvassing the neighborhood near 21st Avenue and Heatherbrae Road and seeking witnesses or information that might clarify what led to the violence and who was responsible.
Over time, Barratt’s death has continued to appear in online gun-violence memorial and case-tracking sites, which list him as a victim of gun violence in Phoenix on March 1, 2015, and link back to the original local news coverage. These entries emphasize that he was killed by gunfire inside his home and invite members of the public to share memories or provide any information that could assist investigators. Despite the passage of years since the shooting, publicly available sources do not report any suspect being identified by name, nor any arrests made in connection with his killing. As far as those records indicate, the person who shot Barratt has not been publicly identified, and his death remains an unsolved homicide in the Phoenix Police Department’s files.
