Two Men Killed in Shooting Near 16th and McKinley in Central Phoenix; Suspect at Large

PHOENIX — Phoenix police were searching Tuesday for a suspect after two men were shot and killed near 16th and McKinley streets in central Phoenix, department spokesperson Sgt. John Buchanan said, according to the Arizona Republic.

Officers responded to a call about a shooting around 4:45 a.m. and found two people who were subsequently pronounced dead, Buchanan said in a news conference around 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 6. Preliminary information indicated both were adult men who appeared to have died from gunshot wounds, he said, according to the Arizona Republic’s account of the briefing.

Video coverage from azfamily (KPHO) added early-morning detail from the scene: the shooting was reported around 4:30 a.m. near 16th and McKinley streets, south of Interstate 10, and a Phoenix police lieutenant confirmed two men died at the scene. The station’s crew witnessed two bodies in the area — one in the middle of the street, another at a bus stop — azfamily stated in its coverage.

The timeline, as the two outlets’ reporting reconstructs it, runs from the first reports in the pre-dawn dark — around 4:30 a.m. per azfamily’s on-scene coverage — to officers arriving and finding the victims around 4:45 a.m., per the Arizona Republic’s account of Buchanan’s briefing, to the formal police update at roughly 8:30 a.m. What happened in the minutes between remains the core of the investigation, and police have not publicly described it.

The 8:30 a.m. briefing was the department’s first on-the-record account of the shooting, coming about four hours after officers found the victims. Buchanan repeatedly framed what he shared as preliminary information — standard practice in the opening hours of a homicide investigation, when the scene is still being documented and detectives have not yet finished their initial canvass. That is also why so much remains officially unknown: in the first hours, police typically confirm only what officers observed at the scene, holding back anything unverified or anything that could compromise the investigation.

Buchanan said the suspect connected to the shooting was still on the loose Tuesday. “That being said, there’s no indication of any ongoing threat to the community at this point,” Buchanan said, according to the Arizona Republic.

What investigators do not yet know is nearly as significant as what they do. They were unsure how many suspects were involved, and they did not know whether the two men were related, Buchanan said. Police have not released the victims’ identities, have not described a motive, and have not said whether any weapon was recovered — all of which means this story, for now, is strictly what the two outlets and the police spokesperson have put on the record. No suspect has been identified or named.

The case is now in the hands of homicide detectives. They planned to document the scene, search for video, and seek additional witnesses, the Arizona Republic reported — the standard next steps in an early-morning shooting where the circumstances are still unclear: canvassing for surveillance footage from nearby businesses and homes, and finding anyone who saw or heard what happened in the dark before dawn.

For the surrounding neighborhood, the practical effect Tuesday was the closure itself: with 16th and McKinley shut down through the morning and possibly into the early afternoon, per Buchanan, the heart of central Phoenix operated around a crime scene while detectives worked. Buchanan’s 8:30 a.m. briefing was the department’s first public accounting of the shooting; police had not released the victims’ identities as of the latest update, and departments typically withhold names until families have been notified.

The area around 16th and McKinley streets was closed for the investigation, Buchanan said. He expected the closure to last through the morning and possibly into early afternoon, according to the Arizona Republic — a sign of how much work detectives expected the scene to require.

Anyone with information was asked to contact Phoenix police or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS (480-948-6377) or 480-TESTIGO (480-837-8446) for Spanish speakers to provide an anonymous tip, the Arizona Republic reported. Silent Witness is the Valley’s long-running anonymous tip program, and in cases like this — a pre-dawn shooting with no suspect in custody — investigators lean heavily on the public: a doorbell camera pointed at the wrong street, a driver passing through at 4:30 in the morning, a neighbor who heard something and didn’t realize what it was.

The Arizona Republic noted its story had been updated as more information became available, and this is a story that will almost certainly develop: victim identifications, autopsy results, and any suspect description would all typically follow in the coming days. Previously will update this story as Phoenix police release more information. Separately, Phoenix police investigated a different double shooting at a west Phoenix restaurant earlier this week — a distinct incident from the 16th and McKinley case.