Deadly shooting at Glendale Little Caesars stemmed from argument between employees, court records say
A shooting at a Little Caesars in Glendale that left one person dead stemmed from an argument between two employees, with the victim making threats about the suspects' family, court documents obtained by The Arizona Republic said.
On June 9, just before 11 a.m., Glendale police responded to the pizza place located near 43rd and Peoria avenues after reports of a shooting.
The caller told police that the victim, a 28-year-old man, was dead and the shooter, identified as 40-year-old Oscar Alexis Ocon, locked himself inside the store's bathroom, leaving behind his weapon in the prep area, court documents state.
When officers arrived, Ocon exited the building and was arrested without incident and asked "if everyone made it out ok," according to documents.
The victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was not identified by police.
Surveillance footage from inside the Little Caesars was obtained by investigators. It showed the victim clocking into work before Ocon appeared holding a rifle while shooting the victim from behind multiple times, court documents state.
The footage showed Ocon standing over the victim while continuing to shoot him and walking away, before returning and stomping on the victim's head multiple times, court records say.
Fifteen 9 mm casings were found, according to court documents.
Employees inside the store at the time of the shooting told investigators the shooting was the result of an incident that occurred at a nearby Target the week before, court records state.
In a post-Miranda interview, Ocon confirmed this with investigators, saying that the victim, himself and some co-workers had gone to Target in the morning as they usually do, according to court documents.
Ocon told police the victim had made a rude comment about a police officer that was working security, resulting in the officer complaining to Target management, who then went to Little Caesars management, documents stated.
Witnesses and Ocon shared the same story of the victim having believed that Ocon reported him to management, court records say, but Ocon told police he didn't give the victim's name and instead gave another employee's name as a joke.
Court documents state that Ocon heard from witnesses that the victim made threats and "specifically say he was going to get a rifle and shoot Ocon and his family at their house." Ocon told police the threats he was told were made by the victim made him upset and caused him to lose sleep.
"So I made a decision, I'm gonna take him out before he does me. And as soon as he walked in, I took him out," Ocon told investigators, according to court documents.
That decision, according to Ocon's interview detailed in court documents, is one he said he is "pretty sure is not legal and is not self-defense, but I wasn't gonna live like that."
Throughout the course of the interview, Ocon said that the victim had never made any threats directly to him.
Ocon told police that he had seen the victim carry a gun before, having seen it a couple of months ago, according to court documents. Other employees told police they had heard about the victim carrying a gun.
However, on the day of the shooting, Ocon did not see the victim with a gun. Police did not find one on him, court records state.
Ocon was arrested and booked into jail, facing charges of one count of first-degree murder and one count of disorderly conduct.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Shooting at Glendale pizza shop stemmed from dispute between employees
