Mesa AZ Store Owner Shot Dead By Homeless Man He Let Use Bathroom

MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ. (THECOUNT) — Lynell Brosier has been identified as the homeless man arrested Friday night in the Tuesday shooting death of 58-year-old Jesus Fabian De La Rosa, the owner of a Mesa, Arizona shoe repair shop.

According to reports, De La Rosa had allowed Brosier to use his bathroom at Lamb’s Shoe Repair, when he later noticed a gun had been stolen from the shop.

Brosier, 65, was arrested Friday at Central Arizona Shelter Services at Central Arizona Shelter Services in Phoenix. He was booked on various charges, including first-degree murder, armed robbery, theft of a firearm, prohibited possessor of a firearm, and possession of stolen property.

Officers got a call from a customer around 12:30 p.m. at the business reporting that De La Rosa was found dead with several gunshot wounds. Mesa Police investigated their call history to see if he had called police needing help. Court papers say investigators saw that he reported a stolen gun on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

According to police paperwork, officers checked light rail surveillance video from a nearby station and saw a man, soon identified as Brosier, get off at the Country Club Dr. and Main Street station before and after the murder. He was wearing a helmet that covered his face and had a cane when he got off the train in Mesa, but when he got back on the train heading toward Phoenix, officers saw he didn’t have his cane. Court paperwork says the same cane was found by police inside Lamb’s Shoe Repair reports AZFamily.

Mesa police soon tracked the missing cell phone to the Phoenix shelter and arrested Brosier at CASS Friday. He’s been booked on various charges, including first-degree murder, armed robbery, theft of a firearm, prohibited possessor of a firearm, and possession of stolen property.

Mesa Police Department released the following statement:

It goes without saying, but we want to say it anyway. Jesus Fabian De La Rosa (Fabian) was a pillar in our Mesa Community. He has owned Lamb’s Shoe Repair since 2005 and has never hesitated to help anyone in need. It is apparent how much he meant to the community in the comments left by over 100 people on our social media platforms. Our hope is that his family sees and reads the comments and knows how much he was loved by seemingly everyone.

A special thanks goes out to the Mesa Homicide Unit. This case required hours of video collecting and monitoring. Watching video can be tedious work, especially when looking for something specific. Our detectives spent four days working around the clock to bring a close to the murder of Fabian De La Rosa and it does not go unnoticed. Thank you.

And finally, our Special Operations Division. The arrest of Lynell Brosier could not have been made without you all. Thank you. In case you missed it, the City of Mesa highlighted Fabian in a YouTube video made 9 months ago that you can watch here. Please watch this to get a better understanding of the type of person he was.

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Geo quick facts: Maricopa County is located in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated its population was 4,485,414 as of 2019, making it the state’s most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States, containing more than half the population of Arizona – Wikipedia.