Two arrested in Phoenix killing spree

PHOENIX — Police said Friday that two men captured at an apartment complex are responsible for a string of random late-night killings that have terrorized residents across this sprawling city for months.

Dale S. Hausner and Samuel John Dieteman were arrested at their apartment in suburban Mesa after about a week of police surveillance.

A concerned citizen told detectives that Dieteman would drive through the Phoenix area, selecting random targets, according to a probable-cause statement released Friday night. It was only later that police connected Hausner to Dieteman.

The report shows that detectives found a .410-gauge shotgun, residue and ammunition in the suspects' possession.

While police were monitoring Hausner and Dieteman, they watched as the two "suspiciously drove through the areas of prior attacks and slowing in the areas of vagrant activity," according to the report. They also saw one of the men throw a trash bag into a bin at the apartment complex.

Inside the bag was a map with red and blue dots representing attack locations, one expended .410-gauge shotgun shell and a piece of paper referring to serial violence, the report shows.

Police also found other guns and long rifles and news clippings about the killings.

The report also shows that Hausner and Dieteman took turns driving and shooting, and said Dieteman admitted to many of the shootings.

"We have a great deal of evidence from a variety of sources in this case and that's the reason that we are so confident that these are the people," Phoenix police Chief Jack Harris said.

The attacks, which began in May 2005, left six dead and were all the more frightening because another, apparently unrelated serial killer has been preying on Phoenix-area victims at the same time.

"These are the two monsters we have been hunting, and I promise you and our colleagues promise you, we are not finished," Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said at a news conference.

Hausner, 33, and Dieteman, 30, were arrested late Thursday.

They were booked Friday afternoon for investigation of two counts of first-degree murder in the killing Sunday of Robin Blasnek and the May 2 killing of Claudia Gutierrez-Cruz and for investigation of 13 counts of attempted first-degree murder. Police said other charges are possible.

At an initial court appearance Friday night, both Hausner and Dieteman were ordered held without bond. Their preliminary hearings were set for Aug. 14 and the court assigned them attorneys.

Late Thursday, police SWAT teams encircled the apartment, but didn't try to make a forced entry, knowing that Hausner's 2-year-old daughter was inside, Harris said. They waited until Dieteman came out to dump the garbage to arrest him, then took Hausner into custody a short time later when he came outside.

"The child was not involved, was not harmed and was returned to the mother," Harris said.

Police said they knew nothing about the suspects' occupations, but the city said Hausner worked as a janitor at the Phoenix airport and neighbors said he also worked as a freelance photographer.

An Internet search Friday turned up several photographs taken by Hausner of female boxers. A Web site offering his services as a wedding and party photographer displays his boxing photography work.

The so-called Serial Shooter targeted pedestrians and bicyclists on empty streets throughout the Phoenix area. Twenty-three people were shot, six fatally, and even horses and dogs were among the victims.

Joseph Roberts, 18, recalled walking his bike in central Phoenix on July 3 when an approaching car slowed down and the driver shot him. He said he saw only one man in the car.

"He pulled out a gun and just shot me," said Roberts, who was hit in the stomach.

Assistant Police Chief Kevin Robinson said the crimes appear unrelated to the still-unsolved "Baseline Killer" cases: eight slayings and 11 rapes since August 2005. Investigators are scouring the city's trove of unsolved crimes for links to that serial predator.

The two serial-killer cases doubled the fear and paranoia gripping Phoenix neighborhoods in recent months, and prompted law-enforcement agencies to devote more than 200 investigators to track down the killers. Authorities said they will move investigators from the Serial Shooter to the Baseline Killer case.

Robinson described Hausner and Dieteman as friends who had no obvious connections to any of the victims.

"The best we could tell, they were just random victims. These individuals just picked victims out and that was it," Robinson said.

Police would not discuss what they thought were the men's motives.

The most recent shooting in the case occurred Sunday in Mesa, less than three miles from Hausner and Dieteman's apartment. Blasnek, 22, was killed as she was walking from her parents' home to her boyfriend's house.

Tom Mangan, a spokesman with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Hausner and Dieteman also are believed to have committed arson.

Mangan said ATF investigators had spotted two people who looked like Hausner and Dieteman in surveillance video from two Glendale Wal-Marts that had been set on fire in June.