A team of undercover police officers faced a daunting task in August 2006 when they were assigned to spy on two Mesa men who had become the prime suspects in the Serial Shooters killing spree.
The team of at least five detectives was told to secretly follow and track suspects Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman without attracting attention to themselves.
Above all, they needed to make sure the suspects didn’t strike again.
But that mission became almost immediately dire and impossible on the first night, as the pair cruised the East Valley - presumably looking for a new target - with the undercover officers nearly powerless to intervene, according to several detectives who testified Monday in the ongoing eight-count murder trial against Dale Hausner.
In the depths of night, the team, riding in multiple unmarked cars and taking turns trailing the men, watched as Hausner and Dieteman slowed numerous times as they approached people walking alone on Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert streets.
Sometimes the Toyota Camry, driven by Hausner, would make U-turns and come back up on the pedestrians, the detectives testified.
Phoenix police Detective Bryan Benson watched the car slow at least three times as it approached lone walkers or bicyclists in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 2.
“We were just sick,” Benson testified in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Reporter’s note: I was without an Internet connection in the courtroom yesterday, but this story encompasses the important events of yesterday. It also appeared in this morning’s print editions of the Tribune.
