Several people have been arrested in connection to the murder of 16-year-old Preston Lord. The arrests are the culmination of months of teen violence coverage and calls from the public for justice for Lord's murder.
Multiple arrests have been made in other cases involving violent attacks on teenagers in the Southeast Valley in recent months. Several other violent crimes involving teenage victims continue to be under investigation and came to light after Lord's murder.
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See the latest ABC15 coverage on the developments of the string of incidents below:
On Oct. 28, 2023, Queen Creek police responded to a neighborhood where they found 16-year-old Preston Lord lying in the roadway. He died two days later at a hospital. His death sparked a push from the community for local law enforcement to dig deeper into Lord's death and other assaults that may be linked to a group of teenagers.
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Around this time, several other incidents came to light in the East Valley involving separate teen violence occurrences.
In mid-December, the Gilbert Police Department finally acknowledged it was made aware of an alleged group possibly involved in some of the violence through social media references.
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On March 6, MCAO and Gilbert police announced that search warrants were granted to arrest several suspects related to Lord's death, and four people had been taken into custody. On March 7, three additional arrests were announced.
Four of the seven suspects are adults, and three are minors who will be charged as adults. MCAO says additional arrests and charges are still possible.
On January 10, the Gilbert Police Department announced the arrest of 18-year-old Christopher Fantastic related to the assault of a teen boy in the parking lot of an In-N-Out restaurant. On the same day, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 20-year-old Jacob Pennington related to a November 18 assault of a teen boy that was recorded and posted to social media. Since then, several other arrests have been made in connection to various assaults. Police say victims are still coming forward to report past assaults.
On different dates in late November, 17-year-old Hailey Stephens was shot and killed at a Casa Grande house party, and 17-year-old Jamiere Jenkins was killed in San Tan Valley, in unrelated cases. Suspects in both of those cases have been arrested. Authorities have not linked these cases to Lord or the alleged group of teens.
