Arizona officials took three copycat freeway shooters into custody over the weekend for a string of slingshot attacks on motorists in moving vehicles.
The trio of 18-year-olds were imitating a slew of more serious sniping incidents that began on Interstate-10 near Phoenix in the last days of August.
That gunman hasn’t been caught yet, despite the earlier detention of a youth initially thought to have been “a person of interest” in the case.
That unnamed individual remains jailed, however, on drug charges and outstanding warrants.
The three youths subsequently arrested were tracked down after one driver managed to get their car’s plate number.
“The victims were smart enough to get the license plate of the vehicle that pulled up alongside,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio informed reporters.
The boys are thrill-seeking copycats, though, he indicated, and were not using real bullets or guns in any of their highway assaults.
That therefore leaves eight of the thus-far eleven confirmed road incidents unsolved, and the unknown serial freeway shooter still at large in Arizona.
The troubling crime spree resembles a similar spate of shootings in neighboring Colorado this spring, which likewise is still a mystery.
