A 30-year-old mother of five was shot to death in a west Phoenix neighborhood early Monday, and a 23-year-old man later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after fleeing police and barricading himself inside a home, authorities said.
The killing, which investigators described as stemming from a custody dispute, unfolded over several hours in the early morning darkness and ended with officers locating a 3-year-old child safe inside the man’s vehicle. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene in the roadway, while the man’s death came during a police standoff as negotiators tried to get him to surrender. The case drew attention in part because the child’s identity was not immediately clear, and detectives said it took time to connect the traffic stop and barricade to the shooting.
Police said officers were sent about 3:36 a.m. Mon., Dec. 22, to an area near 7100 West Pioneer Street after a call reported a woman had been shot and appeared to be dead. When officers arrived, they found Selena Felix with multiple gunshot wounds in the roadway. Phoenix Fire Department personnel pronounced her dead at the scene, police said. Detectives began searching for a vehicle believed to have left the area after the shooting and quickly focused on a car that had drawn police attention earlier in the morning. “During the investigation, officers learned the suspect had left the shooting scene in a vehicle,” Phoenix police Sgt. Jen Zak said in a briefing later that day.
About an hour before Felix was found, an officer attempted a traffic stop around 2:25 a.m. near 900 West Paseo Street, police said. The driver fled instead of stopping, then abandoned the vehicle and ran into a nearby home, prompting officers to set up a perimeter and call in negotiators. Police said the man, later identified as Alexis Torres, refused commands to come out and barricaded himself inside. While officers worked the barricade, they located a toddler in the suspect’s vehicle and moved the child to safety, authorities said. Officers then transferred the child to state child welfare officials during the unfolding investigation, police said.
As negotiators continued trying to reach Torres, officers heard a single gunshot from inside the home, police said. When police made entry, they found Torres dead from what investigators described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The standoff ended without officers firing, and police did not report other injuries connected to the barricade. It was only later, detectives said, that they were able to tie the fleeing driver and standoff suspect to the shooting scene where Felix was killed, a connection they said required sorting through overlapping calls and timelines across multiple locations in the city.
The early hours of the case were complicated further by uncertainty about the child. Police said the toddler found in the vehicle was not immediately identified. According to investigators, it took nearly three hours after the standoff began for officers to confirm who the child was, after a family member reported a child missing from Felix’s home and provided identifying information. Once detectives matched that report to the toddler in the car, the child was reunited with family, authorities said. Police have not released additional details about where the child was taken from or how long the child had been with Torres before the traffic stop.
Investigators said the shooting followed a dispute over custody arrangements and that Torres took the child from Felix late Sun., Dec. 21, before returning and shooting her outside her home. Authorities have not detailed what led up to the confrontation or how long it lasted, and they have not released information about witnesses beyond the initial caller who reported the woman had been shot. Court records reviewed in connection with the case indicate Torres was not the child’s biological father, but police said the conflict centered on custody and the child’s care. The investigation remained open this week as detectives worked to confirm a full timeline, collect digital evidence and interview relatives and neighbors.
The fatal shooting occurred just days before Christmas, a time when domestic violence advocates and law enforcement officials often warn of heightened tensions in households facing separation, custody disputes or financial stress. In Phoenix, police have repeatedly said that domestic violence calls remain a steady portion of their workload, with many cases involving weapons or threats. Officers who respond to overnight incidents frequently confront fast-moving situations that can shift from a domestic argument to a lethal assault in minutes. In this case, the violence spread from a residential street to a separate neighborhood where the suspect fled, leaving multiple crime scenes for investigators to process.
On the west side where Felix was found, neighbors described waking to patrol cars and flashing lights, then learning a young mother had died in the street. Several residents said the area is typically quiet at that hour, with only occasional traffic on nearby arterial roads. Later in the day, detectives returned to the scene to mark evidence in the roadway and canvass for surveillance cameras. Police have not said what kind of weapon was used or whether it has been recovered, though authorities indicated the standoff ended with Torres fatally shooting himself, suggesting at least one firearm was present throughout the overnight events.
Felix’s family described her as a devoted mother and a steady presence in the lives of relatives and friends. In a fundraising appeal created after her death, family members said her five children were struggling to understand why she was gone and that the loss had landed in the middle of the holiday season. They said the family was trying to arrange funeral services while also providing care and stability for the children in the days following the shooting. Police have not released the names or ages of the children and have not said whether they were at home at the time of the confrontation.
Because the suspect is dead, the case will not proceed through a typical criminal charging process. Instead, homicide detectives are expected to complete a full investigative file documenting the events, including forensic findings, witness statements and any available court records related to custody. Police said the case remained under investigation as they worked to confirm relationships among the adults involved and to clarify how the child ended up in the vehicle. Officials also said they were reviewing dispatch records and traffic-stop details from the earlier encounter to understand the sequence of decisions that led from an attempted stop to a citywide homicide investigation.
Authorities have not announced an internal review of tactics used during the barricade, but such incidents commonly prompt after-action assessments, particularly when a suspect dies by suicide. Police said negotiators attempted to communicate with Torres and resolve the standoff peacefully. They have not described how long negotiations lasted before officers heard the gunshot, and they have not released recordings or transcripts from the negotiation effort. Any further public updates are expected to come through routine homicide briefings or written advisories once investigators finalize the timeline and evidence summary.
For now, police say the central facts are clear: Felix was killed by gunfire in the roadway, the suspect fled, and a child was recovered unharmed after Torres barricaded himself and later died by suicide. Investigators said they are continuing to work through remaining questions, including the precise moments between the child being taken and the shooting, and what happened immediately before Felix was shot. Police said they would release additional details if they become available through the investigation.