SALON

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2012 8:27 AM UTC

Ariz. Officials: Couple, Deputy Killed By Same Man

By

Topics: From the Wires,

PHOENIX (AP) — Investigators say they believe a New Hampshire couple found dead in a car near a northern Arizona resort town and a sheriff’s deputy killed days later in Phoenix were shot by the same gunman — a U.S. Marine Corps reservist who was living out of his van and may have thought the world was going to end this year.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Tuesday that ballistics experts confirmed the rifle casings at the two crime scenes came from the assault rifle used by Drew Ryan Maras.

Arpaio described Maras as a Marine Corps reservist who briefly attended Arizona State University, recently lost his maintenance job in nearby Peoria and was living out of his van.

The 30-year-old may have been depressed, had lost contact with his family, believed the world was going to end in 2012 and showed an interest in UFOs, the sheriff said.

The deaths of the New Hampshire couple had baffled authorities over the weekend. The bodies of James Johnson of Jaffrey, N.H., and Carol Raynsford of Nelson, N.H., were found Friday in a sedan at a remote highway turnout near Sedona. Investigators said they found six shell casings on one side of the car, and two on the other side.

Johnson and Raynsford frequently hiked and camped together and were in the area to look for a house for Johnson, said Raynsford’s friend, Jayne Kelly. They had planned to head home at the end of the month

Investigators still don’t know why they were targeted. Officials have said there was no evidence that the two were robbed or that they had provoked the shooter.

“I don’t think we will ever know the motive,” Yavapai County Sheriff Scott Mascher said.

Maras fatally shot sheriff’s Deputy William Coleman on Sunday after the officer responded to a burglary call at a Phoenix medical building, Arpaio said.

Coleman knocked on Maras’ van to rouse him. Maras responded by opening the vehicle’s sliding door and firing 29 shots, authorities said. Other deputies got off 41 rounds and killed Maras.

By Monday, investigators had begun to draw a connection between the two shootings, which took place 85 miles away from each other.

Maras used a variant of an AR-15 assault rifle and shot unique military grade ammunition that has a steel core, giving the slug more penetrating power, investigators said.

He served with the Marines from 1999 to 2003, completing infantry training with a specialty as a rifleman before joining a reserve unit in Chicago, Marine Maj. Shawn Haney said.

Authorities said he had no serious criminal violations. A search of Arizona court records showed just a 2004 citation for driving with a suspended license. But that case was dismissed.

Coleman, 50, was a 20-year veteran. He is survived by a wife and two young children, ages 4 and 7. He also has grown children in another state. He was assigned as a patrol deputy and had previously worked the sheriff’s lake patrol unit.

___

Associated Press writers Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Ariz., and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

More Jacques Billeaud.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations