Man fatally shoots ex and her mom a week after she filed for divorce, Arizona cops say

Helena Wegner
·2 min read
16

A 60-year-old man broke into his estranged wife’s apartment and fatally shot her and her mother, Arizona deputies said.

Authorities responded to a home after 3 a.m. June 25 in Sun City, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said in a probable cause statement.

Neighbors went to investigate noises coming from the apartment above them, deputies said in the report.

They saw the front door had been left open, and a man in dark clothing wearing gloves and holding a gun stepped outside, deputies said.

Officers said he held the neighbors at gunpoint, had them lie on the ground as he took their phone and told them he would shoot them.

At one point, however, the neighbors ran back into their home and called 911, deputies said.

Woman and mom found shot

Once deputies got to the apartment, they heard a woman yelling for help inside, authorities said in the probable cause statement.

They discovered the man’s wife alive, but she had been shot multiple times, deputies said, and her mother was dead.

Medical responders attempted to perform life-saving measures on the wife, deputies said.

But as she was dying, deputies said she told authorities that her “ex-husband,” Robert McGrath, had shot her.

She gave deputies his address and a description of his vehicle.

Deputies also noticed at the scene that the front door of the apartment had been damaged and a large brick was inside the doorway, court documents said.

The woman had filed for divorce June 17, and deputies said she had reported McGrath to police weeks before the shooting, saying he had threatened to kill her.

Deputies arrested McGrath at his home in El Mirage.

He was charged on multiple counts:

  • Two counts of first-degree murder

  • Two counts aggravated assault with a deadly weapon

  • Two counts of kidnapping, apprehension of injury

  • One count of armed robbery

  • One count of first-degree burglary

Sun City is about a 15-mile drive northwest from Phoenix.

If you are experiencing domestic violence and need someone to talk to, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for support at 1-800-799-7233 or text “START” to 88788.

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