PHOENIX — A mother and father were found shot to death inside a Phoenix home Sunday, and the man police believe committed the double murder was killed in a shootout with deputies in Kansas, police said.
Police said on Sunday, just after 1 p.m., Phoenix officers responded to an injured person call near 51st Avenue and Warner Street. Police said when officers arrived, they found two adults who had been fatally shot.
Authorities said the victims were identified as 28-year-old Cameron Brown and 27-year-old Asya Ribble.
Brown's uncle told 12News the couple was engaged. He said the family got a text message from Ribble’s sister telling them the children were locked inside the home. That’s when they called the police to do a welfare check. The text allegedly read “break a window if you have to.”
The family forced their way inside the home and found the couple’s two children, a 2-year-old girl, and a 6-year-old boy, safe inside; the uncle told 12News.
Police said during the investigation, authorities identified Leroy D. Malone, 39, of Phoenix, as the suspect and determined an adult female was likely traveling with him.
Phoenix police said Malone and the woman were tracked out of the state. Phoenix detectives contacted agencies nationwide with information about Malone and the woman, along with the case explanation.
Deputies from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas located Malone and the woman near Minneola, Kansas, based on information from Phoenix police.
Police said a confrontation occurred between law enforcement and Malone, resulting in an officer-involved shooting in which Malone was killed. The woman he was with was critically wounded, police said.
Brown's uncle said the woman with Malone is Asya's sister and Malone's boyfriend.
Police records indicate Malone has a lengthy criminal history and has served time in jail for armed robbery and aggravated assault. A grand jury recently indicted him on alleged aggravated assault charges from September of last year.
A neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told 12News she saw Ribble’s sister and Malone outside the home Friday around 5 a.m.
The woman said she kept walking, thinking nothing of it, until Sunday when the victim’s family forced their way into the home and found the couple dead and their children inside.
“We just got the kids some clothes and food,” the neighbor said. “I think [the kids] probably had been there since Friday. I’m thinking that’s when it happened.”
The neighbor said she tried to console the family.
“To find your kid like that, I just can’t imagine,” she said. “All I could do was hold them and try to comfort them.”
It’s still unclear when Brown and Ribble were murdered or the motive behind the shooting.
Brown’s uncle told 12News Malone had threatened Brown in the past with a gun.
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