By Dale Quinn
Two men were killed in a shootout on the South Side Thursday morning in what police say could be the second and third gang-related killings in two days.
Police received several calls just after midnight about shots at a carwash near South 12th Avenue and West Ohio Street, said Sgt. Decio Hopffer, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. Officers arrived and found Marco Antonio Lopez Luna, 20, with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the scene, Hopffer said.
Minutes later police received a call about a truck that crashed into a restaurant in the 5400 block of South 12th, near West Drexel Road. The driver of the truck, Eduardo Verduzco Jr., 23, also had gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Police believe Verduzco was involved in the shooting at the carwash, Hopffer said.
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"Apparently he was still able to function after being shot and lost control of the vehicle a few blocks away," he said.
Detectives from the Police Department's gang unit tracked down several people who might have information about the shooting in an attempt to piece together what happened, Hopffer said.
Whether or not those people would become suspects or witnesses would be revealed later in the investigation, he said.
The slaying is the fourth homicide case Tucson police have dealt with since Tuesday, and the second and third gang-related homicides in two days.
Hopffer said gang violence isn't isolated to a specific area in Tucson. "I don't think these days you can say that gang activity occurs in any one side of town," he said.
On Wednesday morning, gang-unit detectives were called to investigate the death of Charles Johnson, 26, who was discovered by a security guard near North Stone Avenue and Grant Road. Johnson also may have had gang affiliations.
At this point, no evidence indicates the two incidents are related, Hopffer said.
A home invasion Tuesday morning turned deadly when several people entered a group home for the mentally ill on the Southwest Side and demanded narcotics. The robbers ordered four patients and one housekeeper to lie face-down on the floor and shot one of the patients before running away.
That case is still under investigation, and detectives have not determined why the group home was targeted. The gang unit is not involved in that investigation.
The Tucson Police Department investigated 57 homicides in 2005. The Thursday morning killings bring the total for 2006 to 47. Unless December is a particularly deadly month, there could be fewer homicides than the previous year, Hopffer said.
Of this year's 47 homicides, 17 were gang-related, according to information provided by the Police Department.
In the county, sheriff's deputies worked 20 homicides in 2005, said Department spokeswoman Deputy Dawn Barkman. Deputies have dealt with 19 so far this year, she said. The department doesn't keep statistics on how many of those are gang-related, she said.
Anyone with information about any of these slayings is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME.
January: 2
February: 1
March: 7
April: 4
May: 6
June: 4
July: 5
August: 4
September: 4
October: 4
November: 6
Total: 47 (17 gang related)
Source: Tucson Police Department
"I don't think these days you can say that gang activity occurs in any one side of town."
Sgt. Decio Hopffer
Tucson Police Department
