Phoenix police seek work truck after woman fatally shot on SR 51

Phoenix police say a woman who was shot on State Route 51 Wednesday night was on the phone with a 911 operator at the time of the shooting.

The woman was driving north on SR 51 approaching Thomas Road when she was shot in the head by someone in another vehicle, according to police and fire reports.

UPDATE:Shooting was not likely the result of random violence, police say

MORE:State Route 51 chase, shooting stuns victim’s family

"While she was on the phone with 911, the dispatcher heard about 3 gunshots and the call was ended," said Sgt. Jonathan Howard, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Police have since confirmed that the woman has died. Her name was not immediately released.

Howard said the woman told the dispatcher that she was being chased by three men in a white work-style truck with a ladder rack and toolbox in the back.

"She believed these people were following her specifically but she didn’t offer any information as to why they may be following her," Howard said.

After the shooting, the woman's car crashed into a concrete median. Police believe the truck exited at Thomas Road.

Howard would not immediately confirm what type of vehicle the woman was driving, but a black older-model Honda Accord was stopped just south of Oak Street, next to the concrete barrier. The front passenger-side window was shattered, and a black handbag lay on the blacktop.

Phoenix fire crews took the gunshot victim and two others to hospitals, according to fire Captain Rob McDade. The latter patients suffered minor injuries in collisions that resulted from either the shooting or the truck driver's aggressive behavior, Howard said.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety received "five or six" 911 calls around 7:20 p.m. about a white work-type truck that was driving aggressively, Howard said.

The DPS closed northbound lanes of the SR 51 at McDowell Road for the investigation. Later, they extended the closure to include the ramps to SR 51 from Interstate 10 and Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway.

Howard said he expected the freeway to remain closed until at least 3 a.m. Thursday.

Officers go car-to-car

Rachel Furphy, of Chandler, was headed to Deer Valley to meet her aunt for dinner when traffic came to a standstill on SR 51

“We got here right as it happened,” Furphy said, adding that she was parked about four cars behind the closure. She sat there, listening to the radio for any news, and watched as law-enforcement officers systematically approached each car on the freeway, apparently looking for information.

“Some people are pretty mad at the officers, but most people are pretty OK,” Furphy said. “They’re all around the cars right around us right now.”

An officer stopped at her car as she was on the phone with The Republic.

Did you see any reckless driving behavior, anyone driving with road rage, the officer asked. She said no, and the officer moved on.

Gerardo Sanchez was stuck in another vehicle nearby.

“The only question they asked was if we had seen a white truck with a ladder driving crazy or driving suspiciously,” Sanchez said. “We didn’t see anything, obviously, it had already happened.”

He had just picked up his girlfriend from work at Banner-University Medical Center and was getting on SR 51 from McDowell Road when he noticed a DPS cruiser race onto the freeway in front of him. He figured there was a typical traffic accident ahead.

Instead, he came to a sudden halt just as he got past the on-ramp. Soon, an ambulance passed by.

“It’s all blocked. Nobody can see anything right now,” he said, more than an hour later, as he sat in his car waiting for the road to reopen.

Officers searched the roadbed with flashlights, looking on the pavement and underneath the stopped vehicles.

At first, Sanchez said, he still figured there had been a wreck.

“We were kind of bummed out, we were going to just go home,” he said. “After we found out a woman was just shot in the head…” He paused.

Then: “I feel sorry for her and her family. I mean, nobody deserves that.”

An ongoing search 

Howard said police on Wednesday night pulled over several trucks matching the description of the suspect vehicle, but "none of them had panned out."

None of the witnesses were able to provide police with a license plate, he said, adding that investigators would be going through any freeway camera footage or other surveillance video for clues.

Steve Elliott, Arizona Department of Transportation assistant communications director, said late Wednesday that ADOT doesn't record from traffic cameras.

The shooting came about a year after the crescendo of a seemingly unrelated case that kept freeway drivers on edge.

Through the summer of 2015, a series of apparent shootings hit vehicles across the Valley, mostly on Interstate 10. Some cases were gunshots, others unspecified projectiles. For weeks, electronic message boards flashing warning signs and the tip hotline number became a fixture for commuters.

On Sept. 18, 2015, officers arrested Leslie Merritt Jr., bringing an apparent end to the high-profile case. DPS officials said a gun Merritt owned could be linked to 4 of 11 shooting incidents. But the case against him unraveled as questions arose about that ballistics evidence. Merritt was released from jail in April, and the charges against him were dismissed.

Those cases differed dramatically from Wednesday night’s incident on the 51 – in them, drivers seemed to be unaware of the shooting until after their vehicles were struck, and there was no search for any specific vehicle immediately after a shooting.

Republic reporters Josh Susong and Lindsey Collom contributed to this article.