Tucson police have arrested a man in connection to a fatal shooting that happened last year on the city’s south side.
Detectives identified Antonio Rea Valdez, 35, as the suspect in the killing of Manuel Erminio Martinez-Gomez, 38, police said. On Wednesday, Valdez was found by officers on Tucson’s southside and was taken into custody.
Valdez was charged on suspicion of first-degree murder and is being held at the Pima County jail on a $1 million bond, police said.
On June 1, 2021, officers found Martinez-Gomez with gunshot wounds outside of a residence in the 400 block of West Ohio Street, near South Liberty Avenue. Despite life-saving efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives believe that prior to the shooting, Martinez-Gomez was sitting inside a vehicle that was parked in the front yard when other residents from the home reported hearing several gunshots outside, police said. When the residents came out of their home, they found Martinez-Gomez shot inside the vehicle.
In total, 45,221 deaths in 2020 were gun-related, which is a 14% increase over the prior year and a 43% increase over a decade before. Overall, gun-related deaths constitute a majority of both homicides and suicides in the U.S.
