Rosa Pastrana is a neighborhood block watch leader in Maryvale, the largely Latino neighborhood where most of the killings happened.
Police fielded thousands of tips, went door-to-door in seeking information and analyzed ballistics from a different, unrelated serial shooting case. But police say that Saucedo had no personal connection to the people he killed following this incident, and that they appeared to be picked at random, killed while entering their homes or lounging in their yards.
Saucedo was booked on 26 felony counts, including homicide, assault and drive-by shooting.
"This case plagued our community for more than a year. and left behind a trail of victims that included mothers, sons, brothers, sisters and families still mourning the loss of their loved ones", Ms Williams said.
"The only thing I can say is thank God there's going to be justice and we leave it in God's hands".
The gunman struck at night, stalking victims to their homes or cars and opening fire on them under the cover of darkness.
Several months passed before another victim was felled by gunfire.
Williams said the department had been investigating the link between Saucedo and the shootings for "a month or so", after he was arrested in April in connection with an August 16, 2015 fatal shooting in Phoenix. Authorities investigated Saucedo more closely and connected him to the serial killings.
Police say they have also linked Saucedo to the January 2016 shooting death of 22-year-old Jessie Olivas, ABC15 reports.
The suspect then went on a killing spree from March of previous year through July, police said. "For one part I'm happy because there's going to be justice in my son's death and others' deaths and that person is not gonna do more damage", Gisela Castro, the mother of shooting victim Manuel Castro-Garcia, told the Associated Press.
Two weeks after the first killing, authorities seized the weapon used in that crime from a Phoenix pawn shop.
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Police said they expect to pay out the $75,000 reward posted for information leading to an arrest. She said her husband and his friends began hanging out in the backyard instead of the front after the shootings.
While Monday's news puts to rest one mystery, another remains: The authorities said they were still investigating a series of shootings along highways in the Phoenix area that they said appeared to have no connection to the Saucedo case.
After trying to find the suspect for more than a year, police announced on Monday they had linked Saucedo to a total of 12 seemingly random shootings on the city's west side.
Police notified all the victims' families Monday before publicly announcing Saucedo's arrest.
- Diego Verdugo-Sanchez was shot dead on April 1, 2016 in front of his home.
"When they showed me the picture, I did get a little chills", he said.
Police arrested Saucedo in April for the 2015 killing of Romero.
The killing rampage continued until June, when Saucedo allegedly fatally shot three people.
Saucedo also allegedly shot at a 21-year-old man and his nephew while they were sitting in their auto on July 11, 2016, but neither was injured.
Jack Levin, a retired professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University in Boston and the author of several books on serial killings, said most serial killers are in their 30s and 40s and their crimes rarely involve guns.
At the time of his arrest, Saucedo was living in the 4600 block of north 10th Street in Phoenix, according to court records.
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