In the early morning hours of December 12, 2017, Jacob Edward Luna, a 23-year-old male of Hispanic / Latino descent from Tucson, Arizona, was fatally shot while sitting in a parked vehicle at an apartment complex in the 700 block of East Pastime Road, near North First Avenue and East Prince Road in central Tucson. Just before 1 a.m., Tucson police received multiple 911 calls reporting shots fired in the area. Responding officers arrived around 12:45 a.m.
and found Luna inside a vehicle with obvious signs of gunshot trauma. They pulled him from the car and began emergency life-saving efforts until Tucson Fire Department personnel arrived and took over. Despite these attempts, he was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.
In the aftermath of the shooting, detectives from the Tucson Police Department’s Gang Unit were assigned to lead the investigation, based on information that Luna had gang affiliations. Investigators processed the scene, collected physical evidence, and interviewed witnesses in the surrounding neighborhood to reconstruct what had happened in the moments before and after the gunfire. Authorities publicly stated that, while the specialized unit was involved because of the victim’s background, it was still unclear whether the shooting itself was directly gang-related. The crime scene, situated along East Pastime Road between the major cross streets of Prince and Roger roads, became the focal point of canvassing efforts as detectives sought additional witnesses, surveillance footage, or other leads that could point to those responsible.
As weeks and months passed without an arrest, law enforcement and community partners turned to the public for help. In 2018, the 88-CRIME program announced a $5,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for Luna’s killing, with a significant portion of that reward coming from an anonymous donor. Public appeals emphasized that tipsters could remain anonymous by contacting 88-CRIME or calling 911 with information. Despite these efforts, publicly available records and case-tracking summaries still describe the case as unsolved, with no suspects identified or in custody and no announced arrests or charges connected to Luna’s death as of the most recent updates.
