Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg thanked the public and media for help that resulted in additional arrests this week related to teen violence, but also cautioned against the spread of unverified information online.
Soelberg, in a news conference Jan. 25 updating where the town was on its teen violence investigations, said misinformation had led to harassment and financial harm for innocent individuals and some businesses.
“We all need to pause and remember not to circulate information unless it has been verified, verified again and even verified again,” Soelberg said. “There are many innocent people along with the victims and their families who are being hurt by inaccurate information and harmful speculation online.
“There are even small business owners and residents who have been hurt and or harassed by inaccurate information being shared online. Please be cautious and, again, verify to the best of your ability the information you are sharing online.”
Asked to elaborate, Soelberg choked up as he recounted that one 17-year-old boy was playing in front of his house, threatened and accused of being a murderer because someone had wrongly put his address online as the address of a suspect.
“I get emotional about it,” he said. “I see my kids. I wouldn't want that to happen to them. And because of the lies and misinformation being shared by people that, for whatever reason, are sharing that information, having negative impact. I believe (Maricopa County Attorney) Rachel Mitchell talked about this (Wednesday) with Preston Lord's family — all that misinformation, it hurts the victims. It hurts our victims regardless of whether that jurisdiction is.
“Everyone wants justice. We can't have vigilante justice.”
Soelberg choked up one other time when asked about the impact the investigations have had on him personally.
“I’ve lived here for 29 years,” he said. “It’s my home. While I'm the chief, I'm part of the community. I want to make sure my kids are safe. I want to make sure everyone's kids are safe. And that's why we have continued to actively work all of these cases.”
Nonetheless, Soelberg said information from the public has helped to move cases along that had stalled when suspects couldn't be identified or where probable cause could not be established.
“This has been rectified by the community supplying additional supporting information to us, so thank you,” he said. “We appreciate it.”
Soelberg illustrated how the public had helped, saying that among the five new cases the town has opened, related to groups of teens committing acts of violence, four came from videos the police had not seen before.
In one of the arrests from an assault in a parking garage, police had been unable to identify a suspect and had exhausted its leads until a video showed up near the end of December.
Additionally, one of the three arrests made Wednesday came from a case where initially there had been no call for service to report it, so the department did not know about it.
“We had no idea about it until the victim courageously came forward and told us that he was a victim,” Soelberg said. "There is a very short video on that case as well, but in that situation, it was never reported to the police department. Once we received it, we quickly actively worked that investigation. We're still working on that investigation, but we did make some arrests.”
Soelberg said police had received many of the videos it now has after Preston Lord’s death in October. Lord, a Combs High School student, was attacked at a Halloween weekend house party in Queen Creek and died two days later.
But Soelberg said it can be hard to identify from videos who actually is involved, which is where the public can help.
He added that even in cases where arrests have been made, the investigations remain open and more arrests are possible.
“We will do everything we can to make sure our community continues to be safe, not only for my kids but yours and our visitors,” Soelberg said. “That's what Gilbert's been known for is being a safe community. That's why our economy and our entire community has been kind on that shining hill of being an excellent community. We still are an excellent, safe community. Unfortunately, we've had these acts of violence. We are doing everything we can to put an end to it.”
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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