Surveillance footage from the Shell gas station at 5405 W. Valencia Road, near Casino del Sol, showing Mr. Barnett and a second unidentified suspect at approximately 5:20 a.m. on August 19, 2026.
Authorities have named a suspect in the killing of a Tucson police recruit and are asking the public's help to find him and to identify two other people believed to have been involved.
A first-degree murder warrant has been issued for Alex James Barnett, 33, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a news release Thursday night.
Alex James Barnett
Carlos Ramirez, 23, a former corrections officer for Pima County who was days away from completing the academy to join the Tucson Police Department, was shot and killed about 6 a.m. Wednesday in the home he shared with his fianceé, a 23-year-old Pima County corrections officer, who was shot and wounded.
The couple shared a home in a Star Valley area neighborhood on Tucson's far southwest side, and their child was in the home at the time of the shooting.
No possible motive in the shooting has been provided.
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The Sheriff's Department also released two videos Thursday night of surveillance footage: One from the Shell gas station at 5405 W. Valencia Road, near Casino del Sol, showing Barnett "and a second, unidentified suspect" at about 5:20 a.m. Wednesday.
Still photos taken from surveillance video of suspect.
The second shows "a third, unidentified suspect" getting out of the vehicle believed to have been involved in the incident. That footage is from a parking lot near South Palo Verde Road and East 33rd Street at about 10:50 a.m. Wednesday.
The alleged getaway car, a gray Acura MDX SUV captured on surveillance cameras, was found Thursday in a parking lot near South Palo Verde Road and East 33rd Street, south of East 29th Street, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said earlier Thursday.
Arizona Department of Corrections records show Barnett had been sentenced to prison repeatedly and was most recently released on Nov. 18, 2025, after serving almost a year for unlawful imprisonment. In that case, he was originally charged with aggravated assault, too, but pleaded guilty to the unlawful imprisonment charge, court records show.
Previously, corrections department records say, Barnett has been convicted of burglary, theft, identity theft, weapons misconduct, auto theft, child or adult abuse, solicitation of dangerous drugs, and other crimes.
Of the 12 cases listed in corrections records since 2010, 11 of them are from Pima County and one is from Yuma County.
The Sheriff's Department asks that anyone with information about the suspects’ identities or where they are, or any information that might help with the investigation, call 9-1-1, or 88-CRIME to remain anonymous.
Surveillance footage showing a third, unidentified suspect exiting the vehicle believed to be involved in the incident in a parking lot near S. Palo Verde Road and E. 33rd Street at approximately 10:50 a.m. on August 19, 2026.
