Suspect had attended security guard training in Glendale before fatal road-rage shooting

Side view of a Glendale police vehicle.
Side view of a Glendale police vehicle.

A woman was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a motorcyclist in an apparent road rage incident in Glendale on Friday, according to the Glendale Police Department.

At 4:16 p.m., police responded to a report regarding a 23-year-old motorcyclist that was on the ground in the roadway in the area of North 67th Avenue and West Gelding Drive. When medical staff arrived, they found that the motorcyclist appeared to have a gunshot wound, according to court documents.

The motorcyclist was then taken to the Banner Thunderbird Hospital, where he would later be pronounced dead from his injuries.

What led up to the shooting?

A witness reported to police that they saw the initial incident beginning at the intersection of 67th Avenue and Greenway Road. The witness was in the eastbound lanes and stopped at a red light behind a silver four-door sedan, right behind the motorcyclist, according to the court document.

At the red light, the witness said they saw the passengers of the silver sedan appearing to be in a verbal altercation with the motorcyclist, according to court documents.

The witness told police that the front passenger of the sedan left the car and stood at the side of the car while holding what they believed was a black handgun at their side.

The witness told police that the motorcyclist began driving away from the area after the verbal altercation and that the passenger holding the gun re-entered the sedan at the same time. Both the sedan and motorcycle made a turn southbound onto 67th Avenue and sped up significantly to where the witness couldn't see them, according to the court document.

As the witness continued traveling southbound, he found the motorcyclist lying in the roadway near the motorcycle. The witness then provided detectives with the license plate number of the sedan, according to the court document.

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Police investigation finds suspect was attending security training

After the incident, police said that they found a used .45-caliber casing in the southbound lanes of 67th Avenue. Police say they also found that there was a defect from a gunshot in a house located west of 67th Avenue.

The Circle K located near 67th Avenue and Glenway Road had a security camera facing where the initial altercation took place. The video footage from Circle K showed police that the motorcyclist was traveling eastbound on Greenway Road on his motorcycle and that the sedan was leaving a private plaza on the northwest corner of 67th Avenue and Greenway Road, according to court documents.

Police learned that a church was located at the private plaza.

The video also showed the sedan pulling onto Greenway Road at the same time as the motorcyclist passed by. This was found to also be at the same time of the initial altercation. The video then showed the sedan following the motorcycle turning southbound. Investigators believed the sedan was a Hyundai Elantra, according to the court document.

Police said that the Hyundai immediately stood out to detectives, appearing to match the suspect's car, according to the court document.

Detectives then contacted the church in the plaza where the suspect's car was seen. They found that there was training being held at the church for an unarmed security guard course. Investigators then got a complete list of the 23 people that attended the course.

After finding the suspect's car, detectives researched the registered owner of the car, who later became a witness of the incident. After reviewing records of other residents from the address on the car's record, detectives identified Neveah Worsley, 21, as the suspect of the incident, according to the court document.

Detectives drove to Worsley's house and found the suspected car backed into the driveway, according to court documents.

Through the video evidence, the license plate reader identifying the suspect's car and the matching description of Worsley in connection to the car, the detectives were able to get a search warrant for the suspected car and Worsley's house.

During the search of the car, detectives found a Glock .45 caliber handgun in the center console. In searching Worsley's house, they found a gun box for the Glock handgun, a gun holster and a box of ammunition that was found in Worsley's room. Testing was later conducted on the handgun and casing and it later showed that the handgun fired the casing from the incident, police said.

Worsley was later found near 83rd Avenue and West Indian School Road where she was taken into custody without incident, according to Glendale Police Department news release.

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Driver of sedan provides contradicting statement to police

Police later interviewed the woman who was in the car with Worsley during the incident.

The woman told authorities that she gave Worsley a ride to a security guard training course at 67th Avenue and Greenway Road, according to court documents. The witness returned to the area at around 4 p.m. to pick Worsley up from the training.

The woman told police that she turned onto Greenway Road in front of the motorcyclist, causing the motorcyclist to become upset. The woman then told officers that she rolled down both windows of the car and yelled at the motorcyclist.

The woman also said that the motorcyclist pulled up alongside her front passenger door and said that the motorcyclist reached his left hand into his front left jean pocket. She also noted that she took the firearm from the center console area and fired a single round in the direction of the motorcyclist's rear tire. She said that she didn't believe that she struck the victim, according to court documents.

According to arrest records, gun residue tests and other witness statements did not align with the driver's statement that the driver fired the gun.

Eventually, the woman admitted that she did not fire the gun and that she saw Worsley holding the firearm after hearing a gunshot but denied that the motorcyclist was shot by Worsley, court documents stated.

Worsley invoked her rights to not provide a statement, the court document said.

Worsley was booked for one count of second-degree murder, according to police.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suspect arrested in fatal Glendale road rage shooting incident