3 Phoenix-area bar shootings in May have left 4 dead and communities reeling

Yahoo

23-05-2025

A series of shootings at local bars in May have rattled people across metro Phoenix.
The shootings have been in three different cities and different settings. One was at a longtime student haunt nestled in a Tempe neighborhood. Another was at a Glendale restaurant open for about a year near the historic downtown. The third was in a Peoria strip mall off a major roadway.
They led to the deaths of four people and injured several more.
Linda Hubbard, who lives in a house behind the Peoria strip mall where the latest shooting occurred, was surprised to hear of the incident, saying the bar was usually a quiet spot except for the occasional drunk, disorderly person or a loud car.
"Every now and then, somebody will come around from the bar and walk down the street, and you can hear a ruckus on the corner over here," Hubbard said. "But as a rule, that bar is pretty quiet. People over there, they don't branch out into the neighborhood."
A fight led to a shooting May 3 outside Casey Moore's Oyster House in Tempe, police said.
Dakota Barnes, 30, was leaving the establishment when another man punched him in the head, according to court records. Barnes responded by shooting the man in the stomach, the records said.
When a neighbor came outside with a cell phone, Barnes threatened the neighbor to put the phone away or he would "come back," according to court records. When Barnes tried to leave with his girlfriend, the man who was shot jumped on the hood of Barnes' car, but the car swerved, and the man fell off, the records said.
Barnes was arrested and faced multiple felony charges.
On May 4, a mariscos and steak restaurant on the edge of historic downtown Glendale, less than a block away from police headquarters, became the scene of a mass shooting that killed three people and injured several others.
Police say a fight broke out at a dance party on the patio of El Camaron Gigante as it was winding down. The event was thrown by On A Sunday Afternoon, a lifestyle brand founded by Bobby Luera. Security removed the people involved in the fight. Soon after, gunfire erupted.
Brothers Damien Anthony Sproule, 17, and Christopher Juaquin Sproule, 21, as well as Milo Christopher Suniga, 21, were killed, according to police.
Family members said the brothers were at the event to make friends with fellow lowrider fans.
Suniga's cousin, Veronica Tarango, told The Arizona Republic at a community vigil on May 6 that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the crossfire. Suniga wasn't a violent or confrontational person, she said.
Five people were injured: two men, 20 and 23; two women, 20 and 21; and a 16-year-old boy, police said.
A shoot-out at a Peoria sports bar killed one man and injured another person May 20. Police officers were dispatched to the Deli Sports Bar, near the Loop 101 Agua Fria Freeway and Peoria Avenue, at about 11:30 p.m. for a disorderly conduct call.
Dispatchers could hear a man on the call arguing with a bar employee who refused to serve him. The man, later identified as 46-year-old Mario Franco from El Mirage, was refused service due to extreme intoxication, police said.
Franco went to the parking lot, retrieved a firearm from his vehicle and fired into the air several times before shooting into the business, police said. One bar patron was injured.
Franco then pointed the firearm at a couple sitting on a park bench outside the bar, police said. The parties began firing back and forth, according to police. Franco was struck and treated for his injuries, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Republic reporters Jose R. Gonzalez, Helen Rummel and Wren Smetana contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix-area bar shootings in May have left 4 dead, many reeling