On a summer evening in Phoenix, Arizona, the life of 29-year-old Maurice Sanders was cut short in a burst of gunfire. On August 16, 2016, Sanders was at a friend's house in the 5300 block of W. Novak, picking up his sister when a vehicle, described by witnesses as a newer silver or gray Chevy Suburban, drove by and multiple shots were fired from it.
Struck by the gunfire, Sanders died at the scene.
In the wake of the shooting, his mother, Joan Sanders, expressed her profound grief over the loss of her only son. She believes that her son was an innocent victim, caught in the crossfire of a dispute that did not involve him. She suggested that a conflict involving the people at the house where her daughter was visiting may have been the motive for the shooting, and that Maurice was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Maurice Sanders, born on January 30, 1987, in Cameron, Texas, was a father of three children and was engaged to be married. His family remembers him as a man who brought joy to everyone's life with a constant smile on his face. As of late 2016, police had not publicly identified any suspects or a definitive motive in the case, and his killer remains at large. The investigation into the drive-by shooting that ended Maurice Sanders's life is ongoing, with his family pleading for anyone with information to come forward.
