Members of the downtown Phoenix community are mourning the deaths of two men who were shot and killed early Friday, Oct. 5.
David Bessent, 41, and Zac Walter, 24, were walking home from late-night shifts at Jobot Coffee and Bar when they were shot. Walter died shortly after and Bessent was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, according to police reports. The police do not know the shooter’s motive, but are searching for a light-colored SUV thought to be driven by the suspect.
Bessent was taken off of life support on Wednesday, according to family posts on social media.
Community mourns loss
Jobot employees found it difficult to talk to the media about the two men. They had already created a memorial outside the coffee shop with pictures of Bessent and Walter, along with chalk artwork and messages of love and farewells.
Local businesses are holding events to remember and support the men. GoFundMe’s have also been set to support expenses for both Bessent and Walter.
Catie Cotter, 25, one of the contributors to the memorial, added snow-capped purple mountains and an Earth with a halo of hearts to the sidewalk outside of the coffee shop. Across the drawing was a simple message: FOR DAVID.
“I’ve been chasing (the media) off, but I need you now,” Cotter, a local artist and curator for First Friday events, said. “I’ve met more people in the last four days, and I don’t know them, but they all knew David.”
Michigan-born Bessent was soft-spoken, humorous and compassionate, according to friends. He was known as a comic book artist who loved to paint and sketch with charcoal.
Rachel Banks, who started a GoFundMe campaign for Bessent’s family, said Bessent was involved in the local art community for over a decade. She said he was the first to welcome her to the area.
“Without him, I would have never met my best friend and partner,” Banks said.
Brendan Adame also met Bessent at the coffee shop and was introduced to many friends in the area by Bessent.
Both Banks and Adame said they remember him sitting at the Jobot patio, talking philosophy and playing chess, sharing cigarettes and art supplies with strangers and friends alike. While there, Bessent often wore a “big wicker farmer’s hat–kind of his signature,” Adame said.
Walter was kind and generous, Grace Juzwa said, adding that when her living situation and responsibilities became difficult to handle, he welcomed her with open arms into his home.
“Zac didn’t even hesitate to let me stay with him,” Juzwa said through Facebook messages. “He shared his bed with me. He shared everything and didn’t ask for anything.”
To welcome people to the community, Bessent started a drawing night at the coffee shop with a high school friend. The tradition takes place every Monday evening when artists gather at Jobot to work on their projects, listen to music and catch up with friends.
Comics led to Brandon Huigens meeting Bessent 17 years ago at an Alternative Press Expo, a San Jose comics convention.
At the time, Bessent worked at a 24-hour Kinko’s (now known as FedEx), where he and other artists printed books and danced to Frank Sinatra. Huigens still has a photograph of him and Bessent after they printed Huigens’ first comic book. Bessent supported his friends’ early projects and encouraged him to begin drawing comics, according to Huigens.
“I thought I was good because of David,” Huigens said. “I looked at him and he never wavered, (he) said ‘Your heart shows through your work.’”
As self-proclaimed nerds, they also collaborated as a “troll-busting” band, as artists in an anthology containing “autobiographical horror stories of dating” and as writer and story-boarder of an unfinished short film.
In addition to being a friend and roommate, Huigens later worked with Bessent at Jobot in its early years on Fifth Street. Bessent also met Walter a few times, who started working there in May of this year.
“I do know David really liked him,” Huigens said. “He said Zac was an amazing guy, soft-spoken and loved poetry.”
Cotter said she knew Bessent for 10 years, during which they lived together and shared an art studio. She said she admired Bessent’s compassion and how he used to “play devil’s advocate in the best way to get you to learn.”
“He would change you if you talked to him,” she added.
Cotter has been housing Bessent’s mother, who requested privacy from the media after Jobot’s memorial.
No arrests made
Cotter said there is currently a “local manhunt” for the shooter, whose identity and motives are still a mystery.
In a statement sent to Roosevelt neighborhood leaders, police said they are increasing police presence in and around the area. Central City Precinct Commander Dennis Orende also said in the email, “every call is important and it’s going to take that one observant person (citizen or officer) to help locate the one’s responsible for this heinous crime.”
Residents are still on edge. “I don’t think anyone has walked anywhere since they were shot,” Cotter said.
Juzwa agreed in a Facebook post: “I feel so angry because we walked everywhere downtown and we never felt like we were in any danger… I feel mad at myself because I was there for First Friday and I didn’t get a chance to say hi or see him one last time.”
Juzwa, a downtown Phoenix resident, said she and Walter met while working together at Jimmy John’s. Their first date was at Lost Leaf, and they were very close, even when Juzwa moved back and forth from the area.
Walter and Juzwa went on many “beautiful” adventures together, including a night hike where they reached the top of a mountain, got lost and couldn’t find his car, she said. He would tell her stories about when he worked at the Grand Canyon and share his passions of music, art, rap and poetry.
Brighton Casey of Paradise Valley said she wants to share Walter’s writings. She started a GoFundMe campaign to publish his work and aims to organize a celebration of his life. Juwza said Casey and Walter knew each other for many years and have lived together.
Juwza said she wants to carry Walter’s loving legacy with her.
“I’m going to love hard, be more present because you never know when it’s the last time,” Juzwa said. “I’m going to grow and take Zac with me in my heart everywhere I go.”
Friends of Bessent agreed. They said his philosophy was all-encompassing and loving, which inspired Bessent’s mother to use the money raised from his GoFundMe campaign to start an anti-hate crime foundation.
Local memorials
Dinerwood, an annual film-making competition at Welcome Diner, had a “moment of sound” Wednesday night to honor the two men. The winners of the competition donated their $440 prize to the victims’ respective GoFundMe campaigns in honor of Bessent and Walter, despite never having met either of the men.
The Lost Leaf, a bar located at Roosevelt and Fifth streets, is planning a benefit show, including bands and spoken poetry, for the evening of Oct. 12.
There will also be a “cash donation and drink-and-draw” at Bri, a restaurant located at North Seventh Street, on Oct. 14. The event will provide art supplies for people to draw with.
Cotter said Bessent “never hung his own show,” but his work will be shown in an exhibit at Jobot in December. There is a planned fundraiser for local artists to put up their work for a raffle and auctions in honor of both men.
Correction Oct. 12: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this article misspelled Adame’s first name, which is Brendan, not Brandon. The article also misstated Rachel Banks and Bessent worked together and that the drawing club was started when Bessent was in high school.
Contact the reporter at adepaol2@asu.edu.
