Friends of victims in Tucson shooting say gunman threatened them for months

TUCSON, AZ — Bryan Barker and his girlfriend are still reeling at the loss of their friend, 25-year-old Elijah Miranda.

“He’s my daughter's best friend, it's like her giant teddy bear, somebody stole it from her,” Barker said.

The couple lives at Lind Commons, in the apartment across from 24-year-old Gavin Lee Stansell. They were visiting relatives when Stansell opened fire, killing three people and himself. Barker’s friend Elijah was among them.

"It looks like a war zone, he shot through the walls, through my living room door," Barker said. "He shot through my TV, I have bullet holes in my bedroom.”

Barker says Stansell was targeting his family. Stansell would complain they were making noise or smoking too much. He even threw their patio furniture off the balcony and threatened to fight Barker. And then -

“She was sitting on the patio smoking a cigarette and he opened his door and started cocking his gun,” Barker said.

Over the last four months, Barker says he called Tucson Police to do something about it. He says the previous property manager had recordings of Stansell threatening to kill her.

“I feel like this shouldn’t have happened, because I told people, we told police, we told people.”

Stansell killed the new property manager, Angela Heath-Fox, and Pima County Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay. Court documents say they were trying to evict him because of known gun threats.

Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay's funeral was held Thursday. You can watch the service in the player below.

“We just didn’t believe it was happening, I had just talked to her earlier that day,” said Luke Menke, Angela's friend.

Menke says Angela just started working at the complex, and this was her first eviction notice.

“She had no reason to be there, there was no reason for her to be involved," Menke said. "All I can think is that she wanted to be there to help.”

Angela’s friends say she left behind a husband and three kids. Our sister station KGUN9 reached out to Tucson Police for a comment but have not heard back from them yet.

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The Tucson Police Department has released additional information on the Aug. 25 shooting that claimed the life of four people, including 43-year-old Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay, who was serving an eviction notice to a tenant at the Lind Commons Apartments near Ft. Lowell and Dodge.

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As officers arrived, a woman was found in the courtyard with gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

She was identified as 28-year-old Angela Fox-Heath. Next of kin has been notified.

Fox-Heath was the apartment complex manager and had been accompanying Martinez-Garibay.

The tenant has been identified as 24-year-old Gavin Lee Stansell.

Constable Martinez-Garibay and Mrs. Fox-Heath were attempting to contact Stansell when he opened fire, killing Fox-Heath.

Officers couldn't find Constable Martinez-Garibay and assumed she was inside Stansell's apartment.

The TPD SWAT Team was contacted and sent out to the scene. Officers entered the apartment and found Constable Martinez-Garibay inside, wounded by gunshots.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

During the search, officers found Stansell dead in the apartment with a gunshot wound that appeared to be self-inflicted.

According to TPD, Stansell had also broken into a neighboring apartment and fatally shot 25-year-old Elijah Miranda.

There are no outstanding suspects.

Bryan Barker lives in the Lind Commons Apartments, across from where the shooting happened.

He tells our sister station KGUN9 his friend, Elijah Miranda, was shot and killed in the crossfire.

The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information, contact 911 or 88-CRIME.