GILBERT, Ariz. — Gilbert's police chief is speaking out about his department's handling of teen violence investigations for the first time amid community criticism.
Gilbert PD had inactivated some of its teen violence investigations and reopened them after public pressure and after the death of 16-year-old Preston Lord, who was assaulted and killed in Queen Creek.
As of Jan. 9, Gilbert PD had reopened four of its teen violence cases and launched five additional investigations stemming from new tips into the department.
Chief Michael Soelberg defended the actions of his department.
"These recent incidents of teen violence have instilled fear and brought forth more questions on how something like this could happen in our town," Soelberg said.
Teen violence cases inactivated by Gilbert PD
Soelberg said in 2022 and 2023, Gilbert PD responded to 375,568 calls for service and group teen violence made up less than .07% of those calls.
That means the department has received around 260 calls reporting group teen violence. 12News has followed up with Gilbert PD requesting specific figures and information about these calls.
Soelberg said they have made 22 arrests in these cases in the past two years. Nine of those arrests have happened this month.
"Every call for service matters. We will continue to investigate reports of crimes, pursue justice for victims, and hold offenders accountable, teen or otherwise," Soelberg said.
Since at least December 2022, Gilbert PD has been investigating group teen assaults happening in their community. But some of those cases were inactivated before any arrests were ever made, leaving some victims and their families feeling abandoned by police.
Four cases were reopened after the death of Lord.
"Had there not been public pressure around these cases, would your department have reopened them and shared the photos with the public?" asked 12News reporter Bianca Buono.
"We were aware of incidents of group teen violence. As I stated, we had seen that from December of '22 and throughout that next year," Soelberg responded. "After Preston was killed in Queen Creek, we looked at our cases... and obviously we're communicating with Queen Creek and other jurisdictions as well throughout all our investigations."
One of the cases shelved by the department happened on August 18, 2023 outside of a Gilbert In-N-Out. A teen was beat senselessly by a group of assailants in the parking lot. His shoes were stolen off of his body while he was on the ground.
The injured victim and his father called 911 that night and the victim told Gilbert PD the name of one of the suspects. Court records show police interviewed that alleged suspect later that night. That alleged suspect provided police with video of the incident.
That alleged suspect, however, denied involvement to police. He then pointed out another alleged suspect in the video and told police that person was the initial aggressor.
"Multiple assailants were captured as they punched, kicked, and stomped on the victim while he laid on the asphalt ground of the parking lot and used his arms as he attempted to shield himself from the attack," the report states.
Despite being given that information and video the night of the attack, police inactivated the investigation in October 2023 due to a lack of investigative leads and probable cause.
After public outrage, including the victim's father coming forward, police reopened the case in December 2023 and released images from the video, asking for the public's help in identifying the attackers.
Weeks later, police arrested four suspects, including the juvenile identified by the victim the night of the attack.
"What follow-up was done with that juvenile suspect? Did your officers just take this teenager at his word when he said he wasn't involved?" Buono asked.
"So, absent other information that showed otherwise, which we now have and we didn't have at that time, we didn't do further information at that time," Soelberg said. "And keep in mind, because there was some confusion on that video where the victim and the other witness that we talked to, they pointed the video and identified who started the fight, but they did not know the names of any of the other people, both the victim and the witness. They said they did not know the other people. And so that's why it was inactivated."
Chief defends department's investigations
Soelberg was asked why his department is taking longer to make arrests compared to neighboring agencies.
Mesa PD took a report about a May teen assault earlier this month and the following week, the department announced an arrest had been made.
"It's not just a matter of saying 'it's that individual'. We want to get the evidence. I'm not saying they didn't do this. They do thorough investigations. With our investigations, not only do we want to identify the person but then, what other evidence can we get?" Soelberg said.
Many in the community have accused the department of burying these cases and allege the police department is covering something up. The chief denied those allegations.
"There's no cover up. We have an excellent department. We have excellent officers, do excellent work every day. Our officers out on the street, our patrol officers those behind the scenes, they're actively working these cases," Soelberg said.
When asked if reopening and reexamining the inactivated cases has triggered any internal affairs investigations, the chief said no.
He still encourages those with information about teen assault cases to come forward. You can submit a tip online here.
You can watch the full press conference in the video below.
Teen violence coverage on 12News
Watch the playlist below for full coverage on teen violence in the East Valley.