Four people were shot to death last night at the Tucson Firefighters Association union hall on the southside.
Police responded to a 911 call after the bodies were found at about 9:30 inside the bar area at the hall, 2264 E. Benson Highway, just east of Kino Parkway.
One of the dead is bartender Lynn Noel, 50. Also dead is Arthur "Taco" Bell and his wife, Judy, said Jim Peterson, the manager of the union hall.
The fourth victim is Mary Beth Munn, in her 50s. Her husband, Ned Alicata, discovered the bodies and called police, according to a friend of Munn's.
None of the victims was a firefighter.
Sgt. Eugene Mejia, spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, said police haven't established a motive. But Munn's friend said the bar's two cash registers were open, even though only one was in use.
Police cars lined Benson Highway for about a quarter mile, and yellow police tape ringed the white brick building. Only three cars and a pickup truck were in the parking lot after the shooting.
Judy Reilly, a bartender at the union hall, said that when she left work at 7:45 p.m., only five people were in the bar.
"This doesn't make any sense. Everybody here watches out for everybody; everyone protects everyone," said Reilly, 45.
Peterson said the hall, built 22 years ago, has been "pretty much a trouble-free place."
"It's a private club," he said. "We've never had much problems."
Marty Mitchell, 23, a bartender who has worked at the hall for a year, said he's never seen any fights inside.
"I've never ever had to raise my voice," he said.
The hall does most of its business in the late afternoon. The small group was typical of a weeknight.
The hall holds up to 300 people and is often rented on weekends for weddings, he said.
John Springer, president of the Tucson Firefighters Association, said only members and guests are allowed in the bar area. The association has 480 members plus associate members.
Munn and the Bells were associate members. Associate members are not firefighters, but are recognized as union members and can participate in meetings and other activities.
Arthur "Taco" Bell was a race car driver in the 1960s and for the last 20 years had been a crew member for Donnie Sink, a Tucson race car driver. He was in his 50s.
Sink and Bell had just gotten together last weekend to discuss plans to race at a proposed new track - Saguaro National Speedway - to be built in Tucson this year.
Noel had worked at the union hall for about a year, said her longtime friend, Linda Brockman, 49. Previously, she was a bartender at Berky's Bar, Brockman said.
Noel's father, John Putney, is a retired firefighter. Her ex-husband, Carson Noel, is also a Tucson firefighter. The couple's daughter and son are both in their 20s.
Noel, a native Tucsonan, graduated from Rincon High School in 1964, said Brockman. She just celebrated her 50th birthday a few weeks ago, Brockman said.
"She was very, very well-liked around town," said Brockman.
"She was a generous, free-spirited, giving person, always ready to laugh. . . . She just loved to laugh and you'd know her laugh anywhere. She was a great gal."
Munn's daughter, Rebecka Ann Munn, 22, was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend in October 1994 in an apartment complex parking lot at South Campbell Avenue and East Irvington Road.
Roy Mendez Valenzuela was arrested that night. He was convicted in March 1995 of second-degree murder.
Two men were killed and another was injured May 30 during an apparent robbery at Moon Smoke Shop, 120 W. Grant Road, in the Grantstone Shopping Center. No one has been arrested.
But police spokesman Mejia said the only similarity between the incidents is the multiple victims.
The union hall is a limited-access building with little traffic, while the smoke shop is in a shopping center with a lot of traffic, he said. Visitors to the union hall must use a card or press a buzzer to be admitted.
The smoke shop slayings happened in the late afternoon.
Arizona Daily Star reporter Ron Somers contributed to this story.
