Family row leaves 5 dead in Phoenix

PHOENIX — A man who had been in a business dispute with his two brothers shot and killed them, his mother and one of their wives before taking his own life, Phoenix police said Friday.

Police identif ied the shooter as Driss Diaeddinn, 50, and the victims as Reda Diaeddinn, Dodi Fayed, Kenza Benzakour and Meriem Ben Yahia, ranging in ages between 26 and 76 years old. The family had origins in Morocco, Sgt. Trent Crump said.

Driss Diaeddinn’s wife fled the two-story Phoenix home with children ages 3 years and 10 months when the gunfire broke out Thursday afternoon, Crump said. His sister, who was hiding inside, came out later while a SWAT team surrounded the home.

The three brothers ran a company that offered cars for hire and a restaurant, Crump said. There had been an ongoing dispute about the business, and one brother opened fire, he said.

The two brothers were shot on the home’s first floor, Crump said. The man then shot his mother as she went down the stairs, continued upstairs and killed a sisterin-law, and then went into a bedroom and shot himself.

A neighbor, Scott Pollack, described the family as quiet and respectful. He said their employees would sit inside company vehicles beside his home and await driving jobs on weekends in the residential neighborhood in north Phoenix. “They didn’t make a lot of ruckus,” he said, adding that the shooting “just blew our minds.”

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