A man identified as a person of interest in the Phoenix serial street shootings may also be tied to another of the Valley's highest profile cases -- the Phoenix freeway shootings, KNXV reports.
Aaron Saucedo is being questioned in connection to the spree of street shootings that happened between March and July 2016, which left seven people dead and two injured.
#BREAKING: ABC15 confirms ID of person of interest in Phoenix serial street shootings. https://t.co/5qnHauBezy pic.twitter.com/bEtLP7LFbO
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) April 24, 2017
RELATED: Full coverage of Phoenix serial street shootings
Saucedo was taken into custody last week for the 2015 murder of 61-year-old Raul Romero -- a case not tied to the serial street shootings, nor the freeway shootings.
He was arrested after Phoenix police connected casings at the scene to a gun Saucedo had sold to a Phoenix pawn shop. Turns out, the Arizona Department of Public Safety had previously grabbed that same gun as part of the freeway shootings investigation.
RELATED: Full coverage of Phoenix freeway shootings
Saucedo's gun was among at least eight seized as part of the freeway shooter case.
DPS test fired all of those weapons, analyzed bullet fragments, came upon what they thought was a match -- and stopped. That process led to the arrest of suspected shooter Leslie Merritt Jr.
Sources tell ABC15 Saucedo's gun was never analyzed, and went back to the pawn shop.
Months later, Phoenix police took possession of the gun and conducted their own testing, leading to Saucedo's arrest in connection with Romero's 2015 murder.
The freeway shootings remain unsolved.
DPS tells ABC15 the investigation remains active, and there is no link between Saucedo and Merritt.
Merritt has since been released and charges dropped after experts refuted the report linking Merritt's gun to the shootings.
"Based on the information that was produced to us by the County Attorney, DPS never looked any further than Mr. Merritt's gun, even though it was sitting under their nose the whole time," Merritt's attorney Jason Lamm said.
Merritt also released the following statement Monday:
"My life was ruined when I was falsely accused of horrible crimes I didn't commit. To know that the gun of an accused murderer was in the hands of police, but not examined, adds insult to injury. I hope that an independent and unbiased look at this new evidence will now show the world that I am not the I-10 shooter and that the person who really committed these crimes gets what he deserves."
So could Saucedo be tied to the freeway shootings?
In a Monday evening press release, DPS said, "There is no evidence to suggest that the arrest of Saucedo is tied to any DPS investigations."
