Two women are killed outside Arizona courthouse after custody hearing
Updated: Two women were shot and killed outside a courthouse in Navajo County, Arizona, late Tuesday afternoon amid a dispute following a custody hearing.
A suspect is in custody, report the Arizona Republic, the Associated Press and the White Mountain Independent.
A third person was wounded by a gunshot to the leg, according to the AP story.
Later stories identified the gunman as Salomon Diaz, 47, of Snowflake, the paternal grandfather of two children who were the subject of the custody hearing. The slain women were identified as the children’s mother, 25-year-old Ashley Utley, and the children’s maternal grandmother, 45-year-old Sherry Quintero-Davenport. The person wounded in the shooting was the children’s aunt, 68-year-old Angela Chambers.
Diaz is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the White Mountain Independent reports.
Diaz had been taking care of the children, ages 2 and 3, and he claimed in a June 10 call to child-welfare officials that Utley had a history of abusing children, according to the Arizona Republic. He is accused of shooting the women after a judge ruled that Utley should be allowed to visit the children while he decided jurisdictional questions. Utley lived in New Mexico.
According to a report by the Arizona Department of Child Safety, Diaz alleged Utley became angry when one of the children tried to get her attention while she was on the phone, and she pushed him to the ground, causing him to hit his head. When the older child tried to intervene, Diaz alleged, Utley slapped his face and pushed him.
The Department of Child Safety found no evidence of abuse and was preparing to close the case as unsubstantiated, according to the Arizona Republic.
Updated on June 30 to identify the suspect and the victims and to add details about Diaz’s past allegations.
