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Teen jailed in Arizona murder

Police say Hancock native shot former Lake Linden man

Elliot Bennett

MESA, Arizona — A Copper Country native is charged for murdering another man from the area in a Phoenix suburb Wednesday.

Elliot Bennett, 19, was arrested on charges of murdering Jacques Bourdeau, 44. Bennett was originally from Hancock, while Bourdeau had lived in Lake Linden.

Mesa Police Department officers found Bourdeau’s body in a bathtub with multiple gunshot wounds. They had been responding to reports of shots fired in the area of Bourdeau’s house at 600 S. Essex Lane in Mesa shortly before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Bourdeau was pronounced dead on scene, according to a Mesa Police Department release.

Two cousins who lived at the house with Bourdeau witnessed the incident, along with a friend of Bourdeau’s who came over for dinner that night, according to a probable cause statement filed in court.

Witnesses said Bourdeau had received text messages that night from Bennett, who Bourdeau described as a friend. Bourdeau told them Bennett was coming over.

When Bennett came, Bourdeau went to the front yard to meet him. Shortly after, witnesses inside the house heard shots fired, the court statement said. Jacques then ran inside, locked the doors and said, “He just shot at me!”

Bourdeau joined the friend who came to dinner, who had hid in a bathroom. The friend told police she heard banging and breaking glass, then footsteps. One of the cousins saw a man later identified as Bennett break through the doors while carrying a large black handgun.

Bourdeau’s friend heard a bang on the bathroom door, which then partially gave way.

She saw a man shoot Bourdeau multiple times. She later identified Bennett from a police lineup.

He then fled in a gray sedan and drove away at high speed, video surveillance showed. The car was described as having a rear spoiler on the trunk.

Detectives found traffic photos of the sedan, owned by Bennett’s mother, matching the witness descriptions. The driver seen in the photos was also wearing a red sweatshirt like the one witnesses remembered.

Bennett reported his mother’s vehicle stolen in Lake Havasu City about 11:30 p.m., four hours after the report of shots fired. He lives with his mother and father in Lake Havasu City, about 200 miles away near the California border.

On police video, Bennett’s mother and father said they could not find their son for hours that night. He came home right before they were calling police to report the car theft, the probable statement said.

Two days later, Mesa officers arrested Bennett at his residence in Lake Havasu City.

When police asked Bennett if he knew why he was at the station, he told them it was because of “rumors” being spread by people in Michigan saying he’d killed a man. He identified Bourdeau as the person mentioned.

“The defendant denied traveling to Mesa and denied recently contacting the victim,” the probable cause statement said.

Bennett faces three charges: first-degree murder, a Class 1 felony; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a Class 3 felony; and first-degree burglary, a Class 3 felony.

The murder charge is punishable by up to life in prison. The assault charge has a minimum of five and up to 15 years, while first-degree burglary carries a sentence of two to eight and three-quarters years.

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