A woman has been arrested on suspicion of felony-murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a 44-year-old man on Tucson's south side, police say.
Manuel A. Avechuco wasΒ found fatally shotΒ about 10:30 p.m. Friday on the road in the 800 block of West Calle Evelina, in a neighborhood just west of Mission Manor Park.
During the investigation, Ambernovana Guadalupe Gradillas, 24, was identified as a person of interest in the case, Tucson police said Thursday in a news release.
Detectives learned from Gradillas that she knew Avechuco and that she and her boyfriend, Alejandro Ray Gamez, planned to rob him. Gradillas said she contacted Avechuco and told him she wanted to buy drugs, meeting later in a neighborhood near Mission Manor Park, according to the interim complaint filed in Pima County Justice Court. When Avechuco arrived in his vehicle, Gradillas got into its passenger seat and bought some cocaine.
Once the transaction was finished, Gamez arrived and tried to get into the driverβs side of the car and finding it to be locked, went over to the passengerβs side where Gradillas was seated, the complaint says. Then Gamez shot Avechuco, the complaint says.
Avechuco then tried to drive away, but after a short distance the vehicle stopped and he fell out of it, the complaint shows. Gradillas then went over to the driverβs side of Avechuco's vehicle and drove around the corner. She then got into the vehicle driven by Gamez and the fled. However, before fleeing, Gamez managed to obtain βsmall baggies of pillsβ from Avechucoβs pocket while he was on the ground, the complaint said.
Gradillas was later arrested on suspicion of felony murder, a law that can charge people in connection with a death that occurs during certain crimes, like armed robbery.
Police say they were able to link Gamez and Gradillas to a recent homicide and multiple robbery cases throughout Tucson and Pima County.
Early on Sept. 10, police say Gamez, Gradillas, and an accomplice, Angel Reyes Martinez, 35, committed a string of robberies, including one at a smoke shop on East Speedway.
In the incident, two gunmen entered the smoke shop. At one point the store employee fought with the robbers. TheΒ clerk managed to grab a knife but one of the robbers fired a a shot, missed the side of the clerkβs head, the complaint shows. One of the robbers then grabbed the knife from the clerk and stabbed him twice in the back.
A rover fired again at the clerk in a parking lot. The clerk was hospitalized with two lacerations to his back and one to his head, the complaint said.
Later, GamezΒ shot and killed MartinezΒ at a park on Tucson's south side, a TPD release said in Thursday's news release.
On Sept. 14, Gamez fired at a police officer at an apartment complex thenΒ died by suicide as police closed in.
Gradillas also was booked into the Pima County jail on multiple counts of armed robbery and aggravated robbery, the release said.
