QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. — Gilbert Chief of Police Michael Soelberg and Queen Creek Chief of Police Randy Brice sat down with 12News on Tuesday to answer questions after the recent indictment of seven suspects in the beating death of 16-year-old Preston Lord.
The Queen Creek police department was the lead agency investigating Lord's murder. He was beaten outside a Halloween Party last October and died of his injuries two days later.
The Gilbert Police Department has received more than 250 calls regarding teen-on-teen violence in two years, according to the chief, and has had previous contacts with all seven of the suspects in the Lord case.
Gilbert police provided 12News with summary information about those prior interactions, including instances that did result in arrests. But they did not release the names of the suspects in relation to their juvenile interactions.
- One suspect had no arrests but four interactions dating back to 2022. In three cases, he was listed as a witness, and one case is still active so police said they could not share more information.
- One suspect had a juvenile arrest for riding a dirt bike onto someone's front yard, along with eight other documented interactions dating back to 2017.
- One suspect had two cases of minor in possession of tobacco at school and another for shoplifting. He had seven other interactions dating back to 2021.
- One suspect had two juvenile arrests. One was for assault and another was for driving recklessly in a dirt lot. They had eight prior interactions dating back to 2017.
- One suspect had four juvenile arrests for alcohol consumption, disorderly conduct related to fireworks, criminal damage for doing donuts with farm equipment, and an aggravated assault. There were seven other interactions with Gilbert PD.
- One suspect had a 2022 incident where he was driving a car that had fireworks thrown out of it.
- One suspect had no juvenile arrests but four documented interactions dating back to 2022.
Gilbert police provided more specific information about interactions they had with some suspects as adults.
- William Owen Hines, 18, has three pending aggravated assault cases in Gilbert. Two occurred in November and December of 2022, but police say they weren't reported until late 2023 and early 2024. Hines is also accused of a DUI-related aggravated assault.
- Dominic Turner, 20, was involved in a traffic collision with a road hazard in 2023.
- Taylor Sherman, 19, was arrested for suspicion of DUI and had other traffic citations between 2022 and 2024.
- Treston Billey, 18, was arrested and charged with DUI in July of 2023.
“Does this show a breakdown in your system?” 12News' Bianca Buono asked Soelberg.
“The interaction that we had with them, there was nothing that was pending prior to Preston Lord’s death,” Soelberg said. “So, there was no action that we could have done differently that would have taken them off of the streets so that they could not have done the harm, and killing Preston Lord.”
"Take William Owen Hines, for example. We found that in less than a two-week span in late 2022, he was involved in two pretty brutal aggravated assaults involving brass knuckles. One was outside of a Gilbert house party. The other was at the Gilbert In-N-Out. We're trying to just wrap our minds around how that same individual, less than a year later, he's charged with murdering another teen," Buono said to Soelberg.
"It's important to note, in those two incidents that you mentioned with William Owen Hines, those were not reported to the police department until after Preston was killed. So our only arrest with him as an adult prior to Preston being killed, was in the summer of last year where he was driving impaired and hit another vehicle and injured somebody. And so that third case that we mentioned in his history, that aggravated DUI related case, is from last summer. But the other two assaults that you mentioned that happened in November in December of 2022 were never reported to the Gilbert Police Department until after Preston Lord was killed," Soelberg said.
"So just to be clear, was there not a call for service to the In-N-Out that night for a report of a fight or an incident?" Buono asked.
"So on the December 2 case, there was a call for service," Soelberg responded. "In that situation, everyone was gone when we arrived. And so that is how we linked it back up to that incident. But there was, in that In-N-Out case in December, there was a call, but we did not, when we arrived, everyone was gone. And then later that same evening is when there was a fight at the garage at downtown Gilbert. And in that case, that was one where we made a arrests on that one as well."
Soelberg also spoke about cases his office did not previously investigate, including numerous calls to the Gilbert In-N-Out where some fights broke out involving brass knuckles.
Brice said the Queen Creek Police Department's investigation continues, but would not provide details about the roles that each of the suspects may have played in the brutal attack.
“Did your investigation show that all seven of these suspects participated in the attack in some way or did others watch, record? What can you share with us?” Buono asked.
“I’m going to be very careful about the information I provide at this point just because it’s so important to maintain the integrity of this prosecutorial process and our ongoing investigation,” Brice said. “While I would love to provide all that detail, because I know everybody, they want to know so they can get that closure. They want to understand what happened and I totally understand that, and I wish I could provide everything. So that information will come out during trial, the very specifics of each person, and how they engaged in the activity, but I can’t provide any more information to that point.”
Watch the full interviews with both police chiefs below:
