Downtown gunman’s plea deal in 2024 shooting came after losing contact with victim

The alleged gunman who wounded nine in Tucson last weekend was put on probation under a plea deal for a 2024 shooting incident because prosecutors “lost contact with the victim,” County Attorney Laura Conover said Friday.

The victim may not have appeared to testify if the case had gone to trial, she said, and the prosecutors couldn’t reach him had to be disclosed to the defendant.

David French, now charged in the shooting of nine other last weekend, agreed to a plea bargain under which a judge put him on probation for firing a stolen rifle at someone while drunk in 2024.

The Sentinel reported on Monday that the Probation Department, which works for the Superior Court, was unable to contact the victim as they prepared a recommendation for the judge. Conover confirmed that the Pima County Attorney’s Office was also unable to contact him.

In a prepared statement late Friday afternoon, Conover said that before the prosecution could go to court, PCAO lost contact with the man who French fired a rifle at in October 2024 during a confrontation at a car wash where the victim was working.

PCAO’s notes regarding the case were contained in a “minimal paper file” that was retrieved from archives on Wednesday evening, when she was “briefed by the original prosecution team,” she said.

“The file reveals that we had lost contact with the victim in the 2024 case. No efforts by the prosecution team or our victim services division were successful. Having lost this contact with the victim is a fact called ‘exculpatory evidence.’ Translated: it’s a fact that the law says the defense is entitled to know about,” Conover said in hte press release.

“Having lost contact with the victim would not make a trial impossible in this case, but perhaps quite difficult to win,” she said.

Conover said an attorney in her office properly disclosed that “serious challenge” in prosecuting the case to the defense attorney, as required.

“And still, the defendant accepted responsibility and pled guilty. Despite this, we got the felony conviction and supervision,” she said.

“For me, it answers a lot of questions, though I had not doubted our extremely experienced veteran prosecutor and their decision-making,” she said. “The fact that we lost victim contact is also in the public record. Media had already reported that the presentence report, written by the Probation Department which is mandated to also try to locate the victim, states: ‘Written and telephonic attempts to contact the victim have been unsuccessful to date.'”

“Just as he did not participate in the sentencing, we may not have had this victim testifying at trial,” she said.

“The availability of victims plays a factor routinely” in prosecuting a case, she told the Sentinel on Friday afternoon.

“For example, it is a data point for us that by the time of a felony domestic violence trial, at least 50% of victims are no longer participating or are in fact sitting with the defense team and participating on behalf of the defendant,” she said.

“In another example, the solo eyewitness to a crime may be unhoused. Finding them again a year or two later for testimony can be extremely challenging, and we are also incredibly grateful when they do such a difficult thing and come Downtown to help the pursuit of justice,” she said.

David Leroy French, 21, is facing felony aggravated assault charges that stem from a mass shooting early Sunday morning that left nine injured. The suspect was also shot as he was running from the scene. He was arrested and taken the the hospital.

He is facing charges of nine counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, nine counts of aggravated assault with serious physical injury and one count of discharging a firearm at a structure.

“All of the victims are continuing to recover, with many of them
already released from the hospital,” said TPD Chief Monica Prieto on
Monday afternoon.

It’s likely that French will be charged with more offenses as the investigation continues, said Tucson Police Department spokesman James Horton.

Friday, Conover said that “it was important to retrieve the (paper) file, because as previously stated, it seems not a single participant in that case from 2024 has an independent memory of the case. This is not surprising. Thousands of shots fired, shootings, and other gun cases are presented to our office every year.”

Conover said that she told local TV reporters about the loss of contact with the 2024 victim on Thursday after a public discussion about gun safety, stating in her news release that “over 24 hours later, we can see that the stations reported some things I said, but not this development.”

“Therefore, we are updating the public here,” she wrote.

“I won’t have anything further to say about this 2024 case,” the Democratic county attorney said. “At this hour we are waiting on a jury on a first-degree murder case. Like another earlier this month, and another the month before that. We’ll send out news of all of those convictions next week. And, we now have a very serious case to prosecute from last Sunday Downtown. We are focused on your health and safety, Old Pueblo. Do not fear: hate and clickbait won’t distract us from your wellbeing. Not this week, not next, and not in the time we have left to serve you.”

Shot at car wash worker in 2024, sentenced to probation

As the Sentinel reported Monday, court
records show French pleaded guilty in September 2025 of aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon during an incident the previous October. He
was sentenced to four years of supervised probation.

From the report filed with the court by the Probation Department, prior to sentencing:

Background: On October 5, 2024, a black and tan colored rifle was stolen; the theft was reported to police.

Summary:
At approximately 4:45 a.m. on October 6, 2024, victim Hernandez was
working at a self-service car wash in the 100 block of West Valencia
Road. He observed a group of vehicles and people being loud; he asked
them to leave. The group argued with the victim, and several males
wearing hooded sweatshirts approached him. One of the group had a rifle,
and another person told him not to call police. One of people at the
car wash struck the victim on his back with a beer bottle. The victim,
while calling for assistance, walked to the median of the roadway to get
away from them. He noted seeing a green laser light shining on him, and
feared he would be shot. Video surveillance showed the defendant pull
the black and tan AR15-style firearm from his pants; he fired one round
in the direction of the victim, who reported also hearing a second shot.
The defendant then left the area on foot.

Tucson Police
Department (TPD) officers investigated the incident, and on October 12,
2024, located the defendant and several involved companions in a vehicle
on Interstate 19 near Valencia Road. A traffic stop was initiated, and
the defendant was detained. He was identified as one of the persons
involved in the car wash incident. A search warrant for the vehicle was
obtained, and three firearms were recovered. The defendant was
questioned and booked into custody; he was released October 18, 2024, to
Pretrial Services after posting bond. He remains at liberty pending
sentencing.

Defendant’s Statement: The defendant related he
brandished a firearm at the car wash, and fired it once. He had been
drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, and had been awake all night. He
acknowledged he was intoxicated. He characterized his behavior as “the
dumbest mistake I could have done.” He no longer associates with the
people he was with that night. He hopes to be placed on probation.

The victim in the case did not respond when contacted by the probation officials to provide a statement, that report said.

Several
friends, family members and employers wrote the court ahead of French’s
sentencing, asking that he not be sent to prison.

Some of the
letters said French was raised by a great-aunt while his mother and
father were serving prison sentences, and that he dropped out of school
during the COVID-19 pandemic.

William Elliott, owner of Elliott’s on Congress, said French started working at his restaurant in February 2025.

Elliott called French an “excellent worker with a positive attitude” in his letter to the judge.

“I
would characterize David as a punctual, quick learning, hard worker,”
he wrote. “He gets his work done efficiently and works well with the
staff.”

Monday afternoon, Conover said without naming French that
“it is believed that the suspect arrested in connection with a mass
shooting Downtown early Sunday morning had one prior felony conviction
when he was 19 years old.”

“Our records check indicates that the
individual was charged by our office at that time with a class three
felony for firing a weapon during an altercation. He then pled guilty to
that aggravated assault,” the county attorney said in a
prepared statement earlier this week. “At sentencing he faced a prison range of anywhere
from two to nearly nine years in prison.”

“The court’s probation
department assessed the individual and found him to meet the criteria
for a sentence of intensive probation, and the judge ordered standard
probation. It appears he was still under that supervision in our
community without any documented infractions in the court file when
Sunday morning’s incident occurred,” Conover said in that press release.

French
was originally charged with discharging a firearm within the city
limits, a Class 6 felony, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a
Class 3 felony. Conover’s office filed notices that counts were each a
crime of “a dangerous nature” under Arizona law, which would carry
mandatory prison time.

Court records show that in that case, which
involved multiple defendants, Conover’s office agreed to a plea deal
without the firearm discharge count, and dropped the allegations that
the French committed a “dangerous” crime.

The March 2025 plea deal amended the charges to the single count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

If
he had been convicted or pleaded to a charge that included an
allegation of a crime of a dangerous nature, a prison sentence would
have been mandatory.

Instead, without it, the Probation Department
reported that the penalty could be “up to five years probation
available,” with a range of prison time possible.

He was sentenced
to probation last May by Superior Court Judge J. Alan Goodwin, who was
appointed to the bench in 2020 by Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican.

The
other defendant in the case, Ernesto A. Camacho, also pleaded guilty to
aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument. A
charge of misconduct involving weapons was dropped, and the plea deal
dismissed a filed allegation regarding the dangerousness of the charges.
He was sentenced to five years on probation by Judge Kimberly Ortiz,
who was appointed by Ducey in 2021.

Sunday shooting

Investigators found video of the incident that confirms French was the shooter. The footage shows him firing multiple rounds into a crowd, according to an interim complaint filed with the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court.

Prosecutors requested that a high bond be set for French’s release because of the number of victims and the extent of their injuries.

TPD previously said officers patrolling the Downtown area heard gunshots around 2 a.m. Sunday.

When officers arrived at the 100 block of East Congress Street, the site of several restaurants, they spotted a man running away.

They shot him at the bus station on the corner of Congress and 6th Avenue, according to multiple accounts on social media.

TPD determined the man had shot nine people. Mayor Regina Romero said the gunman “recklessly began shooting in a crowded area.”

Two of the nine victims were on the patio of Empire Pizza & Pub, on the north side of Congress Street, the restaurant and bar stated on social media.

In 2025, French was an employee at Elliott’s on Congress, a restaurant next door to Empire, according to court records from French’s previous felony conviction.

At the scene early Sunday, officers treated victims at the scene before the Tucson Fire Department took them to a nearby hospital.

The suspect was also seriously injured and hospitalized after he was shot by an officer. No deaths were reported and no officers had been hurt, TPD spokesman Frank Magos said hours after the shooting.

While criticizing that “there is a stronger security presence
guarding our bus station than any business in Downtown,” Empire’s owners
said they “noticed an amazing act of bravery from TPD” while gathering
video footage for the investigation.

“Under a minute from when
injuries seem to occur, two TPD officers were on the scene and
immediately rendered first aid to the victims,” they wrote on Instagram. “They ran into the line of fire, immediately and selflessly rendering assistance,” they wrote.

Monday afternoon, Chief Prieto said that “there has been, and will continue to be, a substantial and highly visible TPD presence in Downtown Tucson for the safety of our community.”

There were 20 uniformed officers, 5 uniformed sergeants, and 2 community service officers on duty in the Downtown District at the time of the shooting, she said.

That district stretches from the Main Gate at the University of Arizona, at the corner of North Park Avenue and East University Boulevard, along University to North 4th Avenue, and south to the Downtown core.

Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is a Class 3 felony, while aggravated assault with serious physical injuries is a Class 4 felony, under state law.