Bernard Deshon Rayford, age 20, has been arrested in connection with a death of 25-year-old Peter Ortiz that occurred outside a Tucson house party.
On October 28, 2017, at approximately 1:00 a.m., Tucson Police officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 1600 block of North Highland Avenue. Upon arrival, officers located two adult male victims in front of a residence with obvious signs of gunshot trauma. Both were treated on scene and then transported to a nearby hospital with life threatening injuries. Several hours after arriving at the hospital, one of the victims succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased. The second victim is now stable and his injuries appear to be non-life threatening.
Detectives were able to determine that just before 1:00 a.m., four uninvited subjects arrived at a large house party and attempted to enter the residence. The subjects were told they could not enter and were not welcome at the party. An argument ensued outside between the uninvited subjects and people at the party. During the argument, the subjects fired several gunshots into the air and then fired shots at the partygoers, striking two of them. After firing the shots, the four subjects fled the scene. Based on information from witnesses, the subjects involved in the shooting appeared to be gang affiliated. They were described as four adult males, possibly Hispanic.
On November 3, 2017, officers along with members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force located Rayford inside of a residence on Tucson’s South Side. Rayford was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Pima County Jail on his felony arrest warrant for one count of First Degree Murder and one count of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon.