2022 Phoenix shooting

On the evening of August 28, 2022, a mass shooting took place in the parking lot of a Days Inn motel in Phoenix, Arizona. 24-year-old Isaiah Steven Williams was recorded on closed-circuit television at around 8:25 p.m. leaving a motel room he had booked, wearing a tactical vest, riot helmet, gas mask, and knee pads, and carrying a semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle and a Molotov cocktail. Three minutes later he exited the motel lobby and began firing at random at vehicles and buildings.

Shortly after the shooting began, a car carrying five occupants pulled into the motel parking lot. Williams approached the vehicle and systematically fired through its windows, killing the driver and one passenger; the remaining three occupants fled uninjured. He then continued walking through the parking lot, firing at vehicles and structures, discharging at least 12 rounds during this phase, which was also captured on video. Williams approached an occupied restaurant, lit the Molotov cocktail, and threw it at a window, which did not break and the device did not explode. He encountered bystanders watching the shooting but did not fire at them at that point. He continued moving through the lot for several minutes, firing additional shots that struck several onlookers.

Police arrived during the attack and were fired upon as they exited their patrol vehicle, wounding both officers, though not fatally. One officer returned fire without hitting Williams. A short time later, gunfire ceased, and when police approached, they found that Williams had killed himself with his rifle. Investigators later found he had also been carrying unused stun grenades and had fired his rifle nearly 200 times during the incident.

The two people killed were identified as 44-year-old Karla Garzona and 36-year-old Misael Arévalo, both inside the vehicle Williams fired into. Five others were wounded, including three civilians and two police officers; one officer was shot in the shoulder and hospitalized, the other was struck by shrapnel in multiple places, and the three civilians were released without needing extensive treatment.

The Phoenix Police Department investigated Williams's motive, while the Maricopa County Attorney's Office conducted an internal review of the legality of the officers' actions; the results of that review have not been made public. Williams held a film studies degree from Arizona State University and had been struggling to find work. He had posted anti-police and anti-government messages online since 2020. In April 2022, his parents confiscated several weapons from him, including an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun, out of concern he might harm himself. In the weeks before the shooting, he sold his car, bought a plane ticket to Houston, and told a friend on the day of the attack that he wanted to fight for Kurdish forces in Iraq.