On Christmas morning 2020, 18-year-old Tyler Cardiel was shot and killed in Phoenix while walking home from an overnight shift at a Circle K. He had recently graduated high school and was planning to spend the holiday with his mother and his 11-year-old brother. The shooting occurred around 6:30 a.m. near 83rd Avenue and Glenrosa; officers responding to reports of a man with a gun found Tyler deceased in the road from a gunshot wound.

Investigators identified 30-year-old Timothy Bell as a suspect after surveillance footage placed him at the store during Tyler’s shift and DNA from clothing left at the scene matched Bell. Weeks after the shooting Bell was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, survived, and was arrested; court records say he admitted to the shooting and blamed his anger over being homeless. Multiple court-appointed doctors later found Bell competent to stand trial and prosecutors have announced intent to seek the death penalty, noting prior felony convictions as an aggravating factor. Tyler’s family remembers him as kind and says he had been helping homeless people the night he was killed.

If anyone has information about Tyler’s final walk home or saw activity near 83rd Avenue and Glenrosa on the morning of December 25, 2020, please come forward.