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Four die in highway shootout


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Arizona
Crime, Law and Justice

(CNN) -- People in at least two cars opened fire as they sped along an Arizona highway Tuesday morning, leaving four dead and at least three wounded.

Several others involved in the Interstate 10 shootout were seen sprinting off into a desolate stretch of desert, state police said.

Witnesses said the shooting began shortly after 8 a.m. (10 a.m. ET), according to Frank Valenzuela, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

Valenzuela said they found four bodies in a Ford pickup truck that had run off the side of the road near Casa Grande, Arizona, about 35 miles south of Phoenix on the Gila River Indian reservation.

The victims have not been identified, but Valenzuela said they appeared to be undocumented immigrants. He did not know if they were men or women.

Another two people with gunshot wounds were found nearby and taken to Maricopa County Regional Medical Center in Phoenix.

While officers combed the area for a group of people that a witness had seen running away, Valenzuela said, the highway patrol was looking for two vehicles.

Within the hour, Public Safety officers stopped a green Ford Explorer as it raced across the Phoenix city line. A woman with a gunshot wound was in the back, along with several other people, all appearing to be undocumented immigrants, Valenzuela said.

And about 15 minutes later, a tribal police officer from the Gila River reservation found a gray Dodge Caravan near a highway ramp in Phoenix.

Witnesses reported seeing as many as six people abandoning the car and fleeing the scene, Valenzuela said.

The spokesman said there was evidence to show the gunfight took place while both vehicles were moving. He did not know if the shooters knew each other, if it was an extreme case of road rage or if there was any other motive.

Officers from the Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Pinal County Sheriff's office were searching the desert at both locations. Near Casa Grande, an armored SWAT vehicle slowly rolled through the scrub brush and sun-baked rocks.


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