Families are still reeling from the shooting spree last weekend in Phoenix and Mesa that left four people dead and one critically injured.

Mesa resident Iren Byers, 20, is held without bond on four counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted first degree murder.

Police believe that Byers, who lived with his grandmother near Main and Extension according to court documents, traveled on foot and public transit over 12 hours, and shot people he met and engaged with in conversation before shooting them with a 9 mm handgun.

Those killed were Nicholas Arnstad, 41, Julian Cox, 41, Stephen Young, 41, and John Swain, 40.

Angela Fonseca, 36, was in serious but stable condition at Banner Desert Medical Center as of press time and is expected to survive.

Based on police information and the accounts of family members who have spoken out after the crimes, several of the victims were struggling with homelessness or substance abuse.

According to court documents, Byers told police after his arrest that he shot four of the five victims because they mentioned being homeless or were using fentanyl, “which he did not like since the defendant’s brother abused the drug, too.”

Though many of the victims were living at the margins, their deaths were no less tragic for those who knew them.

For the family of Mesa-native John Swain, who was killed near Extension and 2nd Avenue, the shooting ended his plans to turn his life around.

William Swain said his brother had struggled with substance abuse and homelessness for the past three or four years, but at one time had a job and family, including a wife and four daughters in Atlanta.

“Even though John was struggling, he was moving toward sobriety,” William said. “It wasn’t like John was just out there, down and out. He had a plan.”

John attended Mesa High School and his brother described him as “the life of the party” and a “goofy kid” growing up.

“He used to go to Skateland every weekend,” he said. “He was just a regular little suburban kid.”

Their father was a pharmaceutical representative for Dupont and their mother was a homemaker.

William Swain said they enjoyed a stable upbringing, but John was just 18 when their mother passed away.

His brother, he said, was always “surrounded by friends,” even when he was without a permanent home. This week he is trying to reach some of the friends that surrounded his brother in Mesa.

He said John had a sense of pride and kept up his appearance even as he lived on the streets.

“He didn’t want to depend on anybody, and he probably should have depended on us a little more,” he said.

William said the last time he spoke with his brother, John sounded optimistic about his future.

He was getting out of jail for time served for theft to maintain his drug addiction, had made plans to go into rehab and was talking about moving back to Atlanta.

Those aspirations ended after police found John Swain with multiple gunshot wounds near Extension and 2nd Avenue in the early morning of May 27.

“I think there’s a redemption arc for everybody, and he was almost at the beginning of his own,” William Swain said.

“That’s what kind of bothers me the most. He was actually taking those steps necessary to kind of turn it around. … He was only 40 years old. It wasn’t like this was his lot in life.”

Police allege that Byers began killing Friday afternoon, shooting Arstad in the head as he walked with the victim along the canal.

Byers, who police say confessed to the shootings following his arrest, told investigators that he shot Arstad because the man was smoking fentanyl.

This first shooting was caught on a security camera and was eventually linked to the Mesa shootings following an investigative lead.

Later the evening of May 26 at 10:30 p.m., Byers allegedly shot the first of four victims in Mesa, killing Cox at Beverly Park, because he was “talking about blues” – a reference to blue pills which resemble prescription opioids that are often counterfeit pills made from fentanyl.

Police responded to reports of a man down in the park and while still on the scene conducting investigations into Cox’s death, officers heard shots fired nearby and began to search the area.

Around 12:15 a.m., officers found Fonseca near Main St. and Alma School with a gunshot wound to the head, and she was transported to the hospital.

Byers would later tell police he met Fonseca while walking on Main Street and shot her because “she made him mad.”

Another person called police just before 1 a.m. to report a dead man outside the bus station near 200 S. Country Club. Officers arrived and found Young’s body.

Byers told police he met Young at Circle K and they talked while riding the light rail toward Country Club.

According to court documents, Byers said he talked about smoking marijuana with Young, but Young wanted to “smoke blues.”

He then shot Young in the head, he told police.

Det. Brandi George said the Mesa PD was initially investigating whether the shooter at-large was targeting homeless people.

There have been high profile incidents across the U.S. of killers targeting the homeless, but Mesa PD doesn’t believe Byers was seeking out homeless people.

After finding the third victim in Mesa, police saturated the area in search of the suspect and other victims and ultimately discovered the last victim, Swain, after 2 a.m. near 200 S. Extension.

Swain had multiple gunshot wounds and police recovered three 9 mm shell casings from the scene.

Byers told police he met Swain while walking on the train tracks, and shot him in the head after he told the suspect he was homeless and not from around there.

Swain fell down the hill and Byers told police he followed to continue shooting him.

But Swain was from Mesa, and he has friends and family here and beyond who are left to grieve a man who had courage and determination.

“He was never at the point where he wanted to die,” William Swain said. “The last conversation we had he was getting stuff set up for Georgia.”

“A little more time and he could have turned this around. … All that disappeared because some 20-year-old kid decided that he wasn’t worth it anymore,” he said.

Investigators used video footage from various sources to connect Byers to all five of the shootings, including light rail cameras, a Circle K security camera and a residential home equipped with a doorbell camera.

Police located the suspect leaving his apartment complex later in the morning of the last shooting and detained him on an unrelated trespassing charge.

A search warrant was issued for Byers’ grandmother’s apartment, and police located the clothes the suspect was wearing in video footage connected with the shootings as well as a loaded 9 mm firearm.

In the probable cause statement, police say Byers showed “no remorse” for the killings, and the document notes that the suspect said he deliberately shot Fonseca again after the first shot “because she wasn’t dead yet.”

In a statement following the shootings, Mesa Mayor John Giles said he was “deeply disturbed by the violence.”

“Our Mesa community grieves for the victims and mourns with their loved ones,” he said. “This is a tragedy felt throughout the City.”

“My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones,” said Councilwoman Jenn Duff, who represents the district where the shootings occurred.

Both leaders praised the law enforcement response.

“I’m very impressed with PD’s work to identify the suspect and make the arrest,” Duff said. “They had a person in custody within 24 hours. Incidents started Friday night and went into Saturday morning. By Saturday morning, they were questioning the suspect.”

“We appreciate Circle K and Mesa residents’ cameras for providing footage that assisted in identifying the suspect,” she continued. “Together with our police department and our surrounding neighbors, our community is in good hands.”

The shooting spree brought the number of homicides in Mesa so far this year to 18.

Last year Mesa had 31 homicides, tied for the highest in five years with the 2021 total.

The breakdown of homicide cases this year to date by police district are Superstition, 6, Fiesta, 2, Red Mountain District, 3, and Central, 6.

Last week’s shootings occurred in the Central District.