CORRECTED: Arizona police arrest two for serial murders

Corrects day of last shooting in paragraph five to Sunday
from Monday

PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) – Arizona police have arrested
two suspected serial killers blamed for a string of fatal
shootings that have terrified Phoenix area residents, officials
said on Friday.

Officers arrested Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman at an
apartment complex in Mesa, Arizona, 15 miles east of Phoenix,
late on Thursday following a tip, Phoenix Police Chief Jack
Harris told a news conference.

Investigators say the men shot and killed six people in a
crime spree that began in May 2005. Eighteen others were
injured in the apparently random nighttime attacks, which
targeted walkers and cyclists.

“The cooperative effort (of a police task force) has led to
the arrest of two suspects we believe are responsible for these
crimes. … They are the serial shooters that this task force
has been hunting,” Harris said.

The gunmen last struck on Sunday, when a woman was shot and
killed as she was walking near her home in Phoenix.

Police said forensic evidence linked the two men to the
shootings, but they declined to provide details.

Harris also said Hausner and Dieteman shot several dogs and
horses in the area.

The so-called “Serial Shooter” case is one of two serial
killer investigations being conducted in the Phoenix
metropolitan area.

Phoenix police are hunting another serial killer wanted in
connection with a cluster of murders, armed robberies and
sexual assaults in the Baseline Road area of the city.

The “Baseline Killer” is believed to have killed eight
people and sexually assaulted 11 women since August 2005.

(Additional reporting by David Schwartz)