Ariz. Grandmother Snapped Photo of Alleged Murderer Before She Was Killed: 'She Solved Her Own Homicide'

Police say an image of a man on the victim's phone matched a description provided by a witness and so they confronted the suspect who is now charged with second degree murder

Pamela Martinez - Grandma
Photo: Pamela Martinez/Facebook

An Arizona grandmother who was shot to death in her car took a photograph of her murderer moments before she was killed, according to police.

On June 11, officers responded to a single vehicle accident "off the roadway into a landscaping area" in Glendale, Ariz., according to a news release.

Police located 60-year-old Pamela Rae Martinez in the driver seat, shot to death.

The investigation revealed Martinez — a food delivery driver — had just completed her final trip for Uber Eats and was on her way home, the victim's daughter, Monique Daniels, told KPNX-TV.

"She did not deserve that," Daniels said. "She never made it home because she was taken. She was less than three minutes away."

Police arrested Rusty French, 62, in connection with the killing of the grandmother of four.

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A witness told detectives Martinez was parked on the side of the road when a van pulled alongside her car. The witness said they saw a man get out of the van and approach Martinez's vehicle, before driving off, according to authorities.

Martinez used her phone to take a snapshot of her alleged killer moments before she was fatally shot. Investigators identified him as French.

"The photograph that she took was of the van that the witness described, and of a man, sitting in his van," Glendale Police Officer Tiffany Ngalula said, according to KPNX. "Had she not done that, we would not know who her shooter was."

According to authorities, French was brought in for questioning on June 15, when he was confronted with the photograph of himself.

"He admitted that was him in the photograph but said he must have blacked out as to what occurred," the news release states.

A ballistics match between a handgun found in the suspect's home and the one used in the shooting also implicated French as the shooter, police allege.

French "showed no remorse for the incident," KPNX reports.

"Our whole life she's been a fighter, she's been so strong, and I told my husband that she solved her own homicide," Daniels told the outlet.

French faces one count of second degree murder.

It wasn't immediately clear if he retained an attorney or entered a plea to the charge.

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