PEORIA, AZ — A man has been arrested in connection to a double deadly shooting last year in Peoria.
The Peoria Police Department and U.S. Marshals announced they arrested 21-year-old Alexander Lee Smith in Gilbert on Monday.
Smith was transported to the Peoria Police Department and later taken to the Maricopa County Jail where he was booked on two counts of first-degree murder.
Last year, on November 11, 2023, Peoria police responded to a home, near 75th and Peoria avenues, after a woman called and said she and her husband had been shot.
When officers arrived, they found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds.
The man, identified as 51-year-old Walter Mitchell, was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman, identified as 42-year-old Susie Ephrem, was taken to a hospital where she died.
Police believe someone forced entry into the home, and that the incident was not a random act.
Officials announced the arrest of Smith a year later. Details of his arrest and the shooting have not yet been released.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Peoria Police Department's tip phone line at (623) 773-7045 or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS or 480-TESTIGO for Spanish speakers.
The shooting remains under investigation.
