On the night of September 1, 2017, 36-year-old African American man Nyeem M. Irby was found dead in Phoenix, Arizona, near the area of Dunlap Avenue and 35th Avenue, along a canal bank behind a water treatment facility at 3030 West Dunlap Avenue. Officers from the Phoenix Police Department were on patrol in that area when, at around 11:15–11:18 p.m., they came upon Irby lying on the ground.
According to authorities, he had been shot, and his injuries were immediately treated as the result of a violent assault rather than a medical emergency or accidental circumstance.
Police and emergency personnel pronounced Irby deceased at the scene, and his death was quickly classified as a homicide. The secluded setting behind the water treatment center, along the canal bank, gave investigators a defined but challenging crime scene to process, with officers working through the night to document evidence and reconstruct the events leading up to the shooting. His case was entered into public homicide and cold-case databases, noting his identity, the date he was found and killed, and that the manner of death was “death by force” or murder.
Despite the early attention from patrol officers and homicide detectives, no suspect has been publicly identified. Silent Witness, the community crime-tip program, lists the suspect simply as “unknown,” and local news reports at the time stated that no suspect information had been released by police. The case has remained unsolved for years, and it continues to appear on public unsolved-homicide listings, which also note that a reward of up to $1,000 is available for information leading to an arrest or indictment. Law enforcement and community tip programs still encourage anyone with knowledge about who shot Irby, or why he was targeted in that secluded stretch behind the water treatment plant, to come forward so that the person or persons responsible can be identified and brought to justice.
