Phoenix police have arrested a 20-year-old man for the alleged murder of a 10-year-old Arizona girl in a suspected road rage incident.
Police have charged Joshua Gonzalez with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault for the shooting death of Summerbell Brown, who Gonzalez reportedly shot and killed while she slept in the back seat of her family’s car, according to ABC News.
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Police say Gonzalez followed the Brown family home in his white Ford pickup truck after some sort of road rage incident. It was then that he allegedly opened fire. Brown’s dad, Dharquintium Brown, was driving a black car and the girl’s mother, Taniesha Brown, and sister were also in the car at the time of the shooting, surveillance video shows.
According to police, when the Brown family pulled up in their driveway, Gonzalez hit them with a barrage of bullets before driving off. Both Summerbell and her father were struck by the bullets and were taken to an area hospital in critical condition. Summerbell succumbed to her injuries at the hospital. The girl’s father was treated and released.
Police are investigating this as a possible road rage case because it started while both men were driving.
“It’s possible that it could’ve begun on the roadway just by virtue of the fact that the car was following the other so closely before they arrived,” explained Phoenix police Sgt. Vince Lewis, according to ABC News.
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In an interview with ABC15, Dharquintium Brown said Gonzalez began shooting as soon as he got out of the car and questioned why the man followed them home.
“I got out of my vehicle and I asked him ‘What’s going on? What’s up?’ because he stopped at my house and I asked him ‘What’s up?’ He just got firing, and he shot my car, and he shot me right here, and he shot up my house and he killed my daughter,” Brown said.
“I looked at him dead in the face. He had this deranged look like he was high on something. His pupils were dilated. As soon as I looked at him in his eyes, he just, boom-boom-boom-boom through the car.” Brown added in the interview. “He didn’t even put the gun outside the window. He shot through his door,” said girl’s mother.
Taniesha Brown said she is now left brokenhearted by her daughter’s murder.
“This is heartbreaking, and I’m going to miss her. I think about her every day. The memory is going to replay in my head every day. I can’t sleep. I hope she’s at peace. I just really hope she’s at peace,” the anguished mother told ABC News.
Summerbell loved to dance and do gymnastics, according to her mom. She was also a straight-A student.
“She was just a baby. There was no reason for her to be taken like this,” Taniesha Brown said.
Police, responding to a tip from the public, found Gonzalez’s truck and arrested him on Thursday. Law enforcement also recovered the murder weapon.
Phoenix Police Sgt. Vince Lewis said Gonzalez has a lengthy criminal record.
“Violence and so forth were part of the criminal history. That’s what I can share,” Lewis told ABC News. “It was the tips and the evidence that brought our attention to him on the day that we located him.”
