Cop Shop

A 56-year-old Casa Grande man is booked into Pinal County Jail on suspicon of two counts each of first-degree murder and unlawful disposal of human remains.
Investigators with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ramon Duran on Friday after they were led to the remains of James Emede and Sandra Dickey, both of whom have been missing since 2007.
Their remains were found in two sealed, 55-gallon drums, according to Lt. Tamatha Villar, sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Gary Grado, (480) 898-6573

A judge sentenced rapper DMX Friday to three months in jail for theft, drug possession and animal cruelty charges.
The 38-year-old rapper whose legal name is Earl Simmons, was ordered to complete an animal offender treatment program.
Simmons was arrested in May at his Cave Creek home on suspicion of seven counts of animal cruelty and four counts of drug possession.
The arrest came eight months after an August raid on his property where Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies found 12 malnourished pit bulls and the remains of three dogs.
Authorities also discovered numerous weapons and drugs.

An 18-year-old man has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault in connection with a Jan. 21 road-rage shooting.
According to a Maricopa County Attorney’s Office press release, Anthony Q. Pink, shot a man in the back and fired shots at another man after an altercation in a parking lot at 1110 W. Elliot Road in Tempe.
Pink then left in a car driven by Monique Fitzgerald, 19, who was charged with hindering prosecution.

Anthony Q. Pink

Tempe police arrested a Phoenix man Wednesday on suspicion of trespassing on the Metro light rail Mill Avenue Bridge.

According to Katie McDevitt, Tempe police spokeswoman, a Metro security guard witnessed Isidro Crispin Escobar, 47, walk past posted warning signs at the end of the bridge.

McDevitt said trespassing on the track is dangerous and a felony. 

 A man is in the hospital after reporting that he got shot overnight while his car was stranded at Gilbert Road on-ramp to the Loop 202 in the southeast Valley.

Lt. James Warriner, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said an officer responded to a stranded motorist and found the man who had been shot in the leg.

The man said a vehicle pulled up and fired some rounds at him, Warriner.

The shooting occurred between 1:30 and 1:50 a.m. and investigators shut the freeway down for two hours.

The man’s wound does not threaten his life, Warriner said.

Detectives are interviewing the man at the hospital.

An armed robber on Tuesday got away with boxes of tile from a Mesa man who was in the middle of a home-improvement project. 

According to Mesa police, the homeowner in the 700 block of north Miller looked outside to see a man loading boxes of tiles he had stacked in his circular driveway into a car.

When the homeowner confronted the robber, he pulled a black semi-automatic pistol from his waistband and pointed it at the homeowner. 

The homeowner backed away and the man got into the passenger seat of the car, which drove away.

Tempe and ASU police will step up traffic enforcement this week around Metro light rail tracks and crossings.
According to a Tempe police press release, the enforcement comes this week as Arizona State University students – many of whom weren’t in town when the rail system became active last month - return to class.

Mesa police discovered a drop house for suspected illegal immigrants on Saturday.
According to a police report, Mesa police got a call of a fight at 639 S. Elm and that the home was a drop house and people were being held against their will.
A drop house is a location where illegal immigrants who have paid to be smuggled into the U.S. stage before the next leg of their trip to their final destination.
Often times, smuggling groups will hold the people against their will and demand more money for the trip.
People were running from the home as police arrived, but officers were able to find out that illegal immigrants were being held inside.
Police hostage negotiators were called in and they were able to talk the group into coming outside.
Twenty nine people were detained and turned over to agents with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

An 18-year-old man died Tuesday in a head-on collision on Broadway Road in Mesa between Higley and Recker roads.
According to Mesa police, Joseph Poirier sped his Honda CRX west through the intersection of 56th Street and Broadway Road and collided with an eastbound Ford Expedition that was making a left turn into a private driveway.
The Honda then collided on the passenger side with a light pole.
The 30-year-old driver of the Expedition and her one-year-old passenger were not injured, police said.