Police: Arizona Food Delivery Driver Snaps Photo of Suspect Before Shot and Killed

An Arizona food delivery driver was shot and killed after completing a delivery but snapped a photo of the suspect before her death, which led to his arrest, according to police.

Pamela Rae Martinez, 60, had slowly driven off the road near 6100 West Bell Road in Glendale before 7:30 p.m. on June 11 and was found “in distress” and was “non-responsive,” per a Glendale Police Department (GPD) press release. After officers forced their way into the vehicle, Martinez was pronounced dead on the scene.

Moments before Martinez’s death, she had made her last delivery with UberEats, and a witness reported seeing the delivery driver parked alongside the road next to a van with a man standing outside her vehicle. The man, later identified as Rusty French, 62, then entered his vehicle and drove off, while Martinez drove off the road shortly afterward.

At some point during Martinez and French’s encounter, the victim was able to take a photo on her phone of the man, which led to police determining him as a suspect in their investigation.

Martinez and French did not know each other, and she was not delivering him food, according to police.

When police conducted a search warrant on French’s house on June 15, the suspect confirmed that it was him in the photograph, but he “blacked out” to what had happened during the incident.

During the search, police found various handguns in French’s home, including one that turned out to be “a ballistic match for the handgun that was used in the shooting.”