PHOENIX — A south Phoenix property manager is expressing his frustration over two of his tenants becoming the targets of violence by an unhoused squatter living across the street.
The two tenants were shot in the overnight hours at near Sunland and 15th avenues on Oct. 14. Phoenix police say 49-year-old Refugio Jimenez shot and killed 29-year-old Rashaad Johnson and nearly killed another woman after she was struck in the face with gunfire.
Court records say Jimenez was living in a house across the street that was "vacant." Nico Bird, the property manager where the shooting happened, said his tenants were being nice to multiple squatters unlawfully living in the house across the street by letting them shower there on occasion.
"But then after that, they were told they weren't allowed at the property," Bird said.
Bird says he moved to trespass them from his property when they began to steal food and damage items inside the common living areas.
“We put locks on, the squatters were mad that happened, and one of the tenants tried to force them out of the house, and gunshots were fired," Bird said.
According to court documents, witnesses told police that Johnson told Jimenez he could not be on their property. They said Jimenez went across the street to "grab his gun," before returning and shooting Johnson multiple times.
He was arrested three days later at another south Phoenix home with body armor on and was also in possession of methamphetamine, according to Phoenix police.
Jimenez asserted a self-defense claim when he was questioned by police, alleging that Johnson fired a gun of his own at him. However, police did not find any other shell casings on the property other than those allegedly fired by Jimenez.
“They feel like their housing situation was a lot better six months ago, and a lot of them didn't understand why, until a lot of the homeless population came over here and the squatters came," Bird said of his tenants' feelings of living in the area.
The property manager doesn't understand how the squatters were able to hole up in a property with relative ease.
“When he felt like something didn't go his way, he did what he wanted to do. So now, yeah, I have a tenant that's dead, and I have a girlfriend that's crying over here wishing he was alive," Bird said.
Bird is calling on city leaders and police to take a closer look at how unhoused people were able to take over a property, and the impacts that can have on Arizonans who are just trying to get by.
“They would come here and say, 'It's just a homeless guy'. Sometimes that homeless guy is the guy that's going to do the crime," Bird said.
Jimenez has been charged with seven felonies, including 1st-degree murder, burglary and being a prohibited possessor of a gun.
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