YUMA, Ariz. — A 73-year-old man’s shooting rampage in towns near the Arizona border left six people dead Thursday, including the suspect and the attorney who represented his ex-wife in their divorce.
Police said Carey Hal Dyess also wounded one person in the shootings around Yuma, a city of about 91,000, before he was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound nearly six hours after the first shots were fired.
The lawyer was killed while packing up his office on his last day of work.
“This is not a random act,” Yuma Police Chief Jerry Geier said. “These victims were targeted.”
Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden said the first shooting was reported shortly after 5 a.m. in Wellton, about 25 miles east of Yuma. The woman wounded in that shooting was in critical condition at a Phoenix hospital.
He said Dyess then fatally shot four people around town before driving to Yuma and killing prominent attorney Jerrold Shelley about 9:20 a.m. 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. He represented Dyess’ ex-wife in their 2006 divorce, which was Dyess’ fifth.
Vida Florez, a Yuma attorney who knew Shelley, said she learned of the shooting after leaving court. She said she heard from a witness who spoke to the police about what happened inside the office.
“They said the shooter came in and told the secretary to ‘get out of here,’ ” Florez said. “She did, and he shot Jerry Shelley and he left.”
Two people were found dead at separate residences, and a man and woman were found dead in a small farm house outside Wellton, said Yuma police Sgt. John Otero.
