A man convicted in a series of Phoenix shootings — including one that injured a police detective — has been sentenced to life in prison plus 56 years, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced Monday.
Aaron Ware, 25, was found guilty in two separate trials for multiple 2022 shootings that spanned several dates in June. One of those incidents occurred near 43rd Avenue and Baseline Road, when Ware and an accomplice ambushed a Phoenix police detective conducting surveillance in an unmarked vehicle.
According to court documents, the suspects — Ware and Ahmani Gordon, 24 — approached the detective’s car wearing masks and opened fire, hitting the detective multiple times. The officer survived the attack.
Police arrested both men about a mile away, and forensic evidence linked the weapons and shell casings to the shooting.
Ware was also convicted of four other shootings that month — on June 3, 7, and 11 — two of which injured three people who later recovered.
In the first trial, Ware was convicted of aggravated assault, drive-by shooting, and discharge of a firearm at a structure. In the second, he was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and discharging a firearm at a structure related to the detective’s shooting.
His co-defendant, Gordon, pleaded guilty last year to aggravated assault and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“When someone puts our community and the people protecting it in danger, there have to be real consequences,” County Attorney Mitchell said. “This sentence is justice not only for the victims, but for every person in Maricopa County who deserves to live without fear of violence.”
At sentencing, Phoenix Police Executive Assistant Chief Dennis Orender said the attack represented “an assault on the very foundation of public safety,” calling the sentence a strong message that violence against officers will not be tolerated.
