Man angry over fentanyl kills 4, wounds 1 in shooting spree: cops

A young Arizona man allegedly angry about his brother’s fentanyl addiction killed four people and wounded a fifth in a bloody shooting rampage over the weekend, cops said.

Iren Byers, 20, was arrested Sunday and “took responsibility” for being the sole gunman behind the shooting spree that began Friday afternoon in Phoenix and ended Saturday in nearby Mesa, authorities said.

Armed with a 9mm handgun, Byers’ claimed all his victims didn’t deserve to live because three of them were fentanyl users, another was homeless and the other simply made him angry, according to his police confession.

The first shooting took place in Phoenix at 2:14 p.m. Friday, with security cameras capturing the moment Byers shot Nicholas Arnstad, 41, according to court documents.

The men had met at a canal bank near 24th Street and Thomas Road, with Byers allegedly telling police that he shot the victim in the head because he was using fentanyl, which he hated given of his brother’s own abuse of the drug.

After running from the scene, Byers got on a bus and left for Mesa, where he met his next victim, Julian Cox, 41, at Beverly Park, authorities said.

Cox was sitting in the south side of the park and began talking to Byers about “blues,” a street name for fentanyl, leading Byers to kill him, police said.

Byers was caught on a nearby Ring camera entering the park through a hole in the fence and walking toward the area where police found Cox’s body Friday night, authorities said. A gunshot can be heard on the footage.

While investigating the park shooting, officers heard another set of gunshots just after midnight and rushed to find the only surviving victim of Byers’ alleged rampage, 36-year-old Angela Fonseca.

Byers told police he met the woman while walking on Main Street and that during their conversation, Fonseca made him angry, leading him to shoot her in the face.

After seeing that she was still alive, Byers said, he shot her again, according to cops. Fonseca was quickly transported to the nearby Banner Desert Medical Center.

The gunman then got aboard the light rail with his next victim, Stephen Young, 41, who allegedly wanted to smoke fentanyl.

A witness told police she spotted Byers walking south on Country Club Drive in Mesa and saw the gunman run off after a loud pop rang. As with Cox, Young was shot in the head.

Young’s sister, Elaina, said her brother struggled with mental-health and substance-abuse issues for years but was working on getting his life back on track.

“He called me that day. I got to say, ‘Stephen, you sound good. I am so glad to hear that. I love you,’ ” Elaina told AZ Family. “He was actually very loved, he was a good person.”

The fifth shooting occurred after midnight, when Byers met John Swain, 40, a homeless man, near the railroad tracks by Extension and 2nd Avenue in Mesa, police said.

Unlike the other victims, Byers did not tell police Swain was a fentanyl user, instead saying that he killed him simply because he was homeless and not from the area, authorities said.

Byers said he shot a fleeing Swain down a nearby hill before firing the fatal bullet, cops said. Three shell casings were recovered at the scene when police found the man’s body just after 2 a.m.

Police said Byers was arrested Saturday on an unrelated charge but confessed to being the gunman they were searching for. He also told police where to find his gun and the clothes he wore during the shootings.

Byers is being held without bail and is facing four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.