Suspect arrested after Tucson junior college student killed on University of Arizona campus

TUCSON, Ariz. - A suspect arrested in the fatal shooting of a Tucson junior college student on the University of Arizona campus is being held without bond on a first-degree murder charge, authorities said Thursday.

Ryan Romero-Encinas, 20, turned himself in Wednesday and was taken into custody at his Tucson apartment, university police said.

19-year-old Minhaj Jamshidi was shot late Sunday night after a fight with the suspect at the school’s volleyball courts near the Arizona-Sonoran dormitory, police said.

Jamshidi died at the scene, and witnesses gave police a description of the shooter.

Romero-Encinas was not a student at the university but regularly played volleyball at the courts, although nobody knew his name, Police Chief Chris Olson said at a news conference.

It’s unclear if Jamshidi and Romero-Encinas ever met before or how often Jamshidi played volleyball games at the university.

Olson said a group of people were playing on the sand volleyball courts around 11 p.m. Sunday when several small fights broke out — and that led to the fatal shooting.

Police received several calls the next day identifying Romero-Encinas as a suspect, and two search warrants were served Tuesday at the suspect’s apartment, Olson said.

Olson said police have recovered a handgun, but they can’t confirm if it is the murder weapon and Romero-Encinas "has provided us no information."

At his initial court appearance Thursday, a public defender was assigned to Romero-Encinas’ case. But the Pima County Public Defender’s Office didn’t immediately release that lawyer’s name.

At the time of his death, Jamshidi was attending Pima Community College and taking classes in building and construction technology.

He grew up in Afghanistan before he and his family moved to Tucson in 2021.