YUMA, Ariz. – The 73-year-old man who went on a shooting rampage in southwestern Arizona killed his ex-wife while apparently targeting her and people who supported her in their divorce, a sheriff’s official said Friday.
Carey Hal Dyess killed five people and wounded one in the shootings Thursday around Yuma, a city of about 91,000. He was later found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Authorities previously identified one of the victims as prominent Yuma attorney Jerrold Shelley, who represented Dyess’ ex-wife in their 2006 divorce.
On Friday, Leon Wilmot, chief deputy for the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, said one of the other victims was Dyess’ ex-wife. Wilmot did not release the woman’s name or identify the other victims, saying authorities were still notifying family members.
But he said the other victims were all either acquaintances or friends of Dyess’ ex-wife who “supported her during the course of the divorce.”
“That’s what it’s looking like,” Wilmot said. “He (Dyess) apparently didn’t agree with what had happened with the divorce, something that caused him to feel that his ex-wife as well as her friends were probably against him.”
Wilmot said authorities have not found any notes left by Dyess, and have not been able to determine the order in which the killings occurred. They only know the order in which they were reported, he said.
Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden said the first shooting was reported shortly after 5 a.m. in Wellton, about 25 miles (40 kilometres) east of Yuma. The woman was in critical condition at a Phoenix hospital.
He said Dyess then fatally shot four people around town before driving to Yuma and killing Shelley at about 9:20 a.m. Shelley was killed while packing up his office on his last day of work.
The bodies in Wellton were found between 8:20 and 9:45 a.m.
Police believe Dyess drove back toward Wellton, pulled over and fatally shot himself. His body was found at 10:47 a.m. inside a vehicle.
Shelley was killed in his downtown law office. Shelley represented Dyess’ ex-wife in their 2006 divorce, which was Dyess’ fifth.
Shelley also was one of the lawyers representing seven young men – three sets of brothers – who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson after accusing a priest of repeatedly raping them when they were children.
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Associated Press writers Mark Carlson and Amanda Lee Myers in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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