PHOENIX — Authorities on Friday filed additional charges against two men who were already facing two murder charges in a series of late night shootings that killed seven people, wounded many others and put Phoenix and surrounding cities on edge.
A grand jury indicted Dale S. Hausner, 33, on five additional counts of murder as well as additional charges of drive-by shooting, attempted murder and aggravated assault. His alleged accomplice, Samuel John Dieteman, 31, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and drive-by shooting.
Both men were also charged with arson.
With the latest indictment, Hausner or Dieteman or both are now charged in 40 cases. However, police said their investigation was continuing. "We still have many cases that we're looking at," said Sgt. Andy Hill, a police spokesman.
People are also reading…
The latest charges included felony counts stemming from two drive-by shootings — on July 7 in Phoenix and July 11 in Glendale — which previously were not linked publicly to the so-called Serial Shooter case.
Hausner and Dieteman were both arrested in August at a Mesa apartment complex where they lived.
They were previously charged with two counts of murder and 14 counts of attempted murder in 16 of the attacks, which occurred since May 2005.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said the charges announced Friday only deepened his previously announced intention to seek the death penalty for the two men.
"Mass murder is not a sport," Thomas said. "It is instead a one-way ticket to death row."
Hausner and Dieteman both have pleaded not guilty to the original charges.
Hausner's lawyer, Ken Everett, did not immediately return a call for comment. Dieteman's attorney, Maria Schaffer, declined to comment Friday.
A third man, Hausner's brother, Jeff Hausner, was arrested earlier this month for investigation in the April 14 stabbing of a transient outside a supermarket in west Phoenix.
He was subsequently indicted on a charge of aggravated assault, according to the County Attorney's Office. That attack had not been previously part of the Serial Shooter investigation but later was added to the list.
The random shootings usually happened late at night, with nothing linking the human victims but their presence walking or riding bicycles down the street. In animal shootings, horses or dogs were typically shot in yards or fields easily visible from nearby streets, police said in a report released Friday.
Dale Hausner was also charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty in the indictment.
The report also said shell casings found at several crime scenes matched casings found under the rear passenger seat of Dale Hausner's car when it was searched after the men were arrested.
Dale Hausner and Dieteman were arrested after months of work by more than 100 investigators. As police fielded tips and combed through cold cases, residents grew increasingly cautious.
Community organizations sponsored self-defense courses, and neighbors went door to door with emergency whistles and safety advice.
Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris noted police had received thousands of calls from the public during the investigation. "We were not a community under siege, but a community on the offensive," Harris said.
The Serial Shooter case is one of two serial-predator cases under investigation by Phoenix police. In September, police arrested a former construction worker and parolee named Mark Goudeau in two sexual assaults linked to a string of attacks connected to the so-called Baseline Killer.
Goudeau has pleaded not guilty to the sexual assaults of two sisters last year.
Police also are checking whether he is connected to 22 other attacks that left eight people dead.
