PD: Suspect in multiple murders in Arizona committed suicide

Scottsdale and Phoenix police departments converged on the Extended Stay Hotel near 69th Street and Shea Boulevard around 6:30 a.m., attempting to make contact with the suspect.

Sgt. Vince Lewis confirms that the suspect, whom police have not publicly identified, is connected to the deaths of four people within a 72-hour span that started on Thursday night with well-known forensic psychiatrist Dr. Steven Pitt.

Lewis said he hoped to release more information about the suspect at a 4 p.m. news conference after his next of kin has been notified. We will carry that live here on azfamily.com, in the news app and on 3TV.

According to Lewis, police were evacuating adjacent rooms at the Extended Stay Hotel when "multiple shots" were fired inside the suspect's hotel room. No officers fired their weapons and no injuries were reported outside that hotel room.

Police sent a drone into the room through a window to assess the situation before officers went in. Lewis said that when police went into the room, they located the suspect inside, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The victims

The first of the four victims, 59-year-old Pitt, was found shot to death in Phoenix around 5:30 p.m.

Less than 48 hours later, two women were shot to death at a south Scottsdale law office at 2:15 p.m.

They were identified as 48-year-old Veleria Sharp and 49-year-old Laura Anderson.

Both victims worked as paralegals at the law office.

Their deaths sparked officials to up the reward of up to $21,000 for information that led to an arrest and conviction of the suspect.

A fourth homicide victim, later identified as 72-year-old Marshall Levine, was then killed early Saturday morning at a commercial building in Scottsdale.