Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Aaron Saucedo.

After more than a year of investigating, Phoenix police have named a suspect in the “Serial Street Shooter” case. Two new murders are linked to the investigation.

Police booked 23-year-old Aaron Saucedo on 26 separate felony counts, all related to shootings from 2015 and 2016.

Phoenix police say ballistics evidence and community tips pointed to Saucedo, who was recently arrested in a 2015 murder case.

Nine people were killed and two injured in the shootings, which began in west Phoenix’s Maryvale neighborhood.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams says the arrest brings closure to the mostly Hispanic community.

“As we turn over our investigation to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for prosecution, we hope that our community will rest a little easier and that our officers will get a little more sleep knowing that the wheels of justice are finally in motion,” Williams said.

Police are still determining a motive, and have not found correlations between most of the victims and Saucedo.

RELATED: Officials Seek More Tips In Phoenix 'Serial Street Shooter' Case

And community tips were a big help in the investigation. Phoenix police received more than 3,500 leads over the course of the investigation, a number not seen since two high-profile cases in Phoenix a decade ago — the "Serial Shooter" and "Baseline Killer" cases. 

Jonathan Howard is with Phoenix police. He says the shootings were in a primarily Latino neighborhood, and asking for tips in Spanish was especially important.

"We worked closely with our local television media in Spanish, we worked with national media in Spanish, we worked with print media in Spanish." Howard said.

He says each tip was a missing puzzle piece that ultimately led to a breakthrough within the past three weeks.

"The tips that we received specific to this suspect were not the entire case. They were small tips that just pointed us in the right direction and led our investigators evaluate the evidence, which is what ultimately led to his arrest. Don’t think that you have to have solved the entire puzzle. We’re just looking for the missing piece, and that’s what we received," Howard said.

And some pieces are still missing. Most victims did not have a clear connection to Saucedo, and the department is still looking into additional unsolved crimes to see if there are more related incidents.

A spokesperson for the Silent Witness program also said social media has helped increase arrests overall. In the past couple months, the program has increased its digital footprint and arrested 35 felons.