A 19-year-old Phoenix man now faces multiple felony charges after investigators say he forced a woman to hand over her phone passcode at gunpoint, used her location-sharing apps to hunt down her boyfriend, and then opened fire on a truck full of people with an assault rifle on a West Phoenix street. Micheal Anthony Soto was arrested on Aug. 26 following a months-long investigation, and a Maricopa County judge has since set his bond at $50,000.
According to Maricopa County Superior Court records cited by FOX 10 Phoenix, the woman had met Soto in Avondale after arguing with her boyfriend, Michael Jara. Investigators allege Soto then forced her at gunpoint to unlock her phone and used her location-tracking apps to pinpoint Jara. Soto allegedly forced her to drive him to a neighborhood near 71st Drive and Warner Street, punching and pistol-whipping her repeatedly along the way, court records state.
Once there, police say Soto — masked and armed with a handgun fitted with a drum magazine as well as an assault rifle — approached a Ford Ranger truck carrying six people. He allegedly smashed the truck’s windshield and pistol-whipped a man sitting in the truck bed, causing the drum magazine to detach during the struggle, according to the same court records. As the Ford Ranger reversed away and the group fled on foot, Soto allegedly fired nearly ten rifle rounds down Sienna Vista Avenue.
How Detectives Traced the Getaway Car
The Phoenix Police Department’s Crime Gun Intelligence Unit investigated the June 7 ambush, according to court records referenced by the same outlet. Detectives used license plate readers and neighborhood surveillance footage to trace a white Cadillac CTS missing its rear bumper, which served as the alleged getaway car. That unit, established in October 2017 as a partnership between Phoenix police, the ATF, Arizona State University and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, is designed to rapidly process ballistics evidence through a national database linking shell casings to specific weapons, per a ResearchGate evaluation of the unit’s work…