AZ AZ - Phoenix, HispMale UP1931, 15-30, Mighty Ducks Cap, Nov'94

WARNING: Morgue photo at link!
https://identifyus.org/cases/1931

Case number 1994-3138
Date found November 30, 1994

Estimated age Adult - Pre 30
Minimum age 15 years
Maximum age 30 years
Race White
Ethnicity Hispanic/Latino
Sex Male
Weight (pounds) 157, Estimated
Height (inches) 68, Estimated
Hair color Brown
Facial hair Brown beard/moustache
Eye color Brown



Location Found
15th Avenue and Madison
Phoenix
Arizona
85007
Maricopa

Circumstances of death
This man died after he had an altercation at 15th Avenue and Madison while he was paint-sniffing.

Clothing on body
brown Dickey's pants, green socks, black t-shirt with Jesus on it and a gray t-shirt with the Virgin Guadalupe on it, blue jacket, baseball cap with logo of Mighty Ducks hockey team, white Nike shoes, gold-color bracelet with the word "PAZ", 2 distinctive cigarette lighters.

WARNING: Morgue photo at link!
https://identifyus.org/cases/1931

Jeronimo Rico?
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/18411

Date last seen: August 21, 1994
Age last seen: 26 years old
Height (inches): 67.0
Weight (pounds): 145.0
City: Rochester
State: New York
Zip code: 14609
County: Monroe
Hair color: Black
Facial hair: mustache
Eye color: Brown
Dental information / charting is currently not available
DNA: Initial inquiry underway

Rule outs
Dean Bechtold 1973 Nebraska
Paul Johnson 1970 Arizona
John Sallee 1963 Oregon

Bump

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
*WARNING - Postmortem photo at link*

There are still only these 3 exclusions.

hayaletcatcher said:

Rule outs
Dean Bechtold 1973 Nebraska
Paul Johnson 1970 Arizona
John Sallee 1963 Oregon

Click to expand...

Did he die as a direct result from the altercation? Or as a result from paint sniffing?

The Mighty Ducks hat plus the paint sniffing leads me to believe he was on the younger side of his estimated age.

PAZ could be his initials, name, or abbreviation of his name.

Paz means peace in Spanish.

victoriarobinson642 said:

Paz means peace in Spanish.

Click to expand...

I like that even better!

Yesterday was the 27th anniversary of this man's death. I recently learned more information that has been out there for a while but I forgot there was a thread on this man. This was a police-related death but something seems wrong about this - I'll tell everyone what happened first.

So, this man and his friend were paint sniffing from a can or rag near Madison Street and 15th Avenue at about 2:00 a.m. that night. A police officer (For now I won't say his name) confronted them and told them they were under arrest. As he attempted to handcuff the men, someone allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the officer in thigh during a struggle with one of the men. The officer pulled out his gun and shot the decedent in the back. The decedent's friend ran off as his friend lay dying on the ground. He was never located.

But still, something seems off about this. Based on what I'm reading, although yes, the officer was shot, it seems that he shot the decedent, who from what I can tell is labeled as the "suspect" in the back - how can you shoot someone behind you in the thigh? Did the decedent's friend actually pull the trigger and the decedent was accidentally killed? Who knows, but something is suspicious about this, even though evidently someone had a gun.

1 Dec 1994, Page 13 - Arizona Republic at Newspapers.com