Authorities investigating the Phoenix I-10 shootings arrested a suspect connected to the seemingly random attacks, but the suspect and his family claim that authorities have the wrong guy, according to CNN.
Twenty-one-year-old Leslie Allen Merritt Jr. was arrested for the sniper shootings along Phoenix roadways, with the Arizona mayor declaring "We got Him!" over social media, as previously reported by HNGN.
However, Merritt and his family are saying that the wrong man has been caught.
"All I have to say is I'm the wrong guy. My gun's been in the pawn shop for the last two months. I haven't even had access to a weapon," Meritt said.
Authorities, on the other hand, claim that Meritt's gun was "forensically linked" to the first four shootings and that he has been charged with criminal damage, aggrevated assault, discharging a firearm within city limits and terrorism, among other charges, ABC News reported.
Merritt's father, Leslie Merritt Sr., believes that the police were eager to make an arrest in connection to the shootings and that anyone who would think his son committed the crime is a "moron."
"He has way too much value for human life to even take the slightest or remotest risk of actually injuring someone," Leslie said.
Meritt's bail has been set at $1 million.
