Inside the killing spree that left 9 people shot dead in 3 weeks: Police

A homicide suspect in Arizona is accused of committing nine murders in just three weeks, Phoenix police said Thursday.

Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 35, has been in custody since the last of the nine alleged killings on Dec. 17 when police say he shot and killed his mother and stepfather.

But after he was arrested, police kept “digging,” Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said Thursday, and discovered seven other fatal shootings in the area they say are connected to Cooksey.

The nine homicides spanned from Nov. 27 to Dec. 17 in Phoenix and nearby Avondale and Glendale, police said.

Phoenix Police Sgt. Jon Howard said police believe there may be more victims and said they were flooded with tips called in from the public.

Here is the timeline of crimes, according to police:

Nov. 27:

Two men — Andrew Remillard and Parker Smith — were found dead in a car in a parking lot. They were each shot once in the head, according to court documents. A motive has not been determined.

Phoenix Police Department

Phoenix Police Department

Dec. 2:

A man identified as Salim Richards was in a “physical struggle with the suspect during the shooting” that left him dead, according to court documents. A gun and a necklace were taken from the victim, and on Dec. 3 Cooksey posted a Facebook video showing him wearing a similar necklace, according to court documents. Cooksey was also wearing a similar necklace when he was arrested weeks later, according to court documents.

Cooksey stole the gun from Richards, a security guard, and used it in the following six murders, according to Howard.

Phoenix Police Department

Dec. 11:

Cooksey allegedly killed his girlfriend’s brother hours after the girlfriend apparently broke up with him, according to court documents.

On Dec. 11 between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., Cooksey went into an Avondale apartment and used a stolen gun to fatally shoot a man named Jesus Real two times in the face at close range while Real was laying on his side, apparently sleeping, according to court documents. The gun used was stolen from a previous murder victim, court documents say.

Phoenix Police Department

Real’s sister was dating Cooksey, and Cooksey stayed over at this Avondale apartment where the family lived several nights a week, according to court documents. Real’s sister told police Cooksey was her ex and they broke up the night before, and he left the house around 7 a.m. on Dec. 11, court documents say.

Dec. 13:

On Dec. 13, a man named Latorrie Beckford was found shot dead on the ground next to an apartment complex parking lot with two gunshot wounds to his head.

Phoenix Police Department

Witnesses told police they heard two gunshots and “when they approached they observed a dark-skinned black male” walking from “close proximity to where the victim was lying,” court documents state.

“Witnesses reported the black male pulled out a black semi-auto handgun after being seen by them,” the court documents say.

Witnesses said earlier in the day, Beckford was in an altercation with two other men, court documents state. A photo of Cooksey was later shown to one of the witnesses who said the photo was very close to the man she saw in an altercation with Beckford. That assault reportedly took place about three hours before the shooting, the court documents states.

Witnesses said Cooksey was known as “Playboy” at the apartment complex, and in an interview in January, Cooksey admitted to investigators “he goes by the nickname ‘Playboy’ because of how good he is with women,” court documents say.

Dec. 15:

A man named Kristopher Cameron was shot in the neck and abdomen at an apartment complex, court documents say.

Phoenix Police Department

When officers arrived at the west entry gate, a man told police “my cousin has been shot” and he directed officers to where the shooting victim was, according to court documents.

Witnesses said “a black male was observed removing the victim’s backpack from him then leaving on foot,” court documents say.

After Cooksey was identified as the suspect, that first responding officer “was interviewed and shown a photo of the person he spoke with at the west entry gate. That confirmed Cooksey was the person he spoke with who told him ‘my cousin has been shot,’” court documents state.

Cameron was hospitalized and later died. Authorities said Cameron had met Cooksey for a drug deal.

Dec. 15:

Also on Dec. 15, Cooksey was seen on surveillance cameras going into an apartment complex, court documents say. Victim Maria Villanueva was seen parking her car that apartment complex, where she was headed to visit her boyfriend, documents state. The suspect is seen going to her car and watching her, and after several minutes, interacting with her, documents state; at one point, they drive away together. Authorities said she was sexually assaulted. She was found shot to death in an alley, naked from the waist down, documents say.

Phoenix Police Department

Cooksey later told police “he did not know how she was killed which he also said about all of the other victims related to these crimes,” the documents say.

Cameron and Villanueva were killed with the same gun, according to documents.

Dec. 17:

Cooksey’s mother and stepfather, Rene Cooksey and Edward Nunn, were shot dead at a home. When police responded, Cleophus Cooksey opened the door and said nothing was going on and no one else was home, according to court documents.

Phoenix Police Department

Phoenix Police Department

Cleophus Cooksey came outside with blood on him, and when an officer tried to detain him, “he yelled out to the officer he controlled the gun, would slit the officer’s throat, he was the strongest man alive, and he took care of the snitches for Donald Trump,” according to the court documents.

Cleophus Cooksey was arrested that night and has been jailed since.

Suspect is ‘off the streets’

Glendale Police Chief Rick St. John said the cases came together thanks to a patrol officer who answered the call and was “doing the right things: Taking a person into custody, recognizing there were abnormalities to his behavior. He was trying to conceal what was going on. The officer very appropriately took the right actions. … And that all occurred before the agencies really started to collaborate.”

He said he is “proud as heck” that the suspect is “off the streets.”

When asked if there could be more victims, police said that is a “distinct possibility” and a “concern of our investigators.”

Police said Cleophus Cooksey had been in prison for about 16 years after being involved in an armed robbery. After his release from prison, he was in and out of jail, police said.

Officials said Phoenix is one of the few cities chosen by the Department of Justice for the National Crime Gun Intelligence Center Initiative, which allowed the Phoenix police to test shell casings at their headquarters; testing that used to take weeks can now take just hours.

Authorities said they expect people in the community to have information to help piece together the relationships and possible motives. Anyone with information is asked to call authorities.

In an interview in January, Cleophus Cooksey “denied having committed any murders but did admit to being in certain places which matched with” evidence from electronic devices, according to court documents.

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The Trump Organization May Have Engaged in Money Laundering with Russian Nationals, Researcher Alleges

(WASHINGTON) – Testimony to the U.S. Congress by the head of a political research firm indicates that the Trump Organization’s sales of properties to Russian nationals may have involved money-laundering, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said on Thursday.

The panel released the transcript of a Nov. 14 closed-door interview with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, whose firm hired a former British spy to research then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign ties to Russians and produced a dossier.

“Those transcripts reveal serious allegations that the Trump Organization may have engaged in money laundering with Russian nationals,” Representative Adam Schiff said.

The Trump Organization dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated.

Another Democrat on the Republican-controlled committee, Representative Jim Hines, sought to temper Schiff’s comment, telling CNN that Simpson “did not provide evidence and I think that’s an important point. He made allegations.”

The House of Representatives panel is conducting one of the three congressional investigations into possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is leading a separate probe by the U.S. Justice Department. Moscow denies the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that it interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump and Trump denies any collusion.

In his testimony, Simpson said that his firm closely examined sales of condominiums in Trump properties in New York, Miami, Panama City and Toronto.

“There were a lot of real estate deals where you couldn’t really tell who was buying the property,” Simpson said. “And sometimes properties would be bought and sold, and they would be bought for one price and sold for a loss shortly thereafter, and it really didn’t make sense to us.”

“We saw patterns of buying and selling that we thought were suggestive of money-laundering,” he continued.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief counsel, said that the deals Simpson referenced primarily involve properties to which Trump licensed his name, rather than owning, developing or selling them.

“These accusations are completely reckless and unsubstantiated for a multitude of reasons,” Garten said.

“These issues have nothing to do with the scope of the investigation” by the House intelligence committee, Garten said in a phone interview. “But it’s not surprising the minority (Democrats) would focus on this given they’ve found absolutely no evidence of collusion.”

Simpson, under questioning by Rep. Jackie Speier, California Democrat, also said that Russia’s operation to influence U.S. politics included attempts to infiltrate the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other conservative organizations, such as groups promoting independence for the states of Texas and California.

“They seem to have made a very concerted effort to get in with the NRA,” Simpson said, according to the transcript.

The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein released Simpson’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she is the ranking Democrat. The panel’s Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, had not agreed to the release.

Fusion GPS, based in Washington, hired former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate Trump’s business dealings with Russia. It first investigated Trump on behalf of the conservative Washington Free Beacon online news site and then for the Democratic National Committee.

Trump has repeatedly criticized the dossier, which was based on Steele’s investigation, calling it “bogus” and “discredited and phony.”

Some Republicans critical of Mueller’s investigation have said that Steele’s dossier triggered the initial probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

They have raised questions about whether the FBI may have relied on the Steele document to improperly obtain surveillance warrants to spy on Trump’s campaign associates.

The testimony by Fusion GPS’s Simpson before the Senate Judiciary Committee last August contradicted those claims.

Ever since Feinstein released the testimony on Jan. 9, House Intelligence Committee Democrats have been asking that Simpson’s testimony to their committee be made public.

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