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CORRECTED: Arizona police arrest two for serial murders

Posted on: Friday, 4 August 2006, 17:53 CDT

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)

Source: REUTERS

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