Police shooting suspect was arrested in 2023, but prosecutors never filed charges

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizona’s Family Investigates has learned that Phoenix Police arrested Saul Bal and booked him into a Maricopa County jail in May of 2023.

They recommended felony drug charges and a misdemeanor trespass charge.

But the case did not proceed to trial. It didn’t even proceed to the charging stage. Instead, it literally disappeared from the public record.

The crimes Bal was charged with could have resulted in a multi-year prison sentence. But Bal was released from custody. Prosecutors say he would have been released at that time even if they had filed charges.

Tuesday night, Phoenix Police say he shot two officers who were responding to a call about someone breaking into a car in central Phoenix.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office confirmed they received the charging submittal from Phoenix police in May of 2023.

“We furthered the case back to PD for drug lab analysis,” stated a spokesperson for MCAO.

On Thursday, an MCAO official said they never received lab results from Phoenix Police that prosecutors say were necessary in order to charge Bal.

We do not know whether the drug analysis was ever conducted.

In fact, there is no record of the arrest easily available to the press or public.

It does not appear on the Arizona Judicial Branch’s “Public Access to Court Information.”

That is where most misdemeanor and felony cases appear in a searchable database.

It doesn’t appear in the Maricopa County Superior Court’s searchable website.

It does not appear on the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office “Mugshot Lookup” website, which contains recent arrestees.

Like other cases where police recommend charges and those charges are rejected for reasons that range from a lack of evidence to no reasonable likelihood of conviction - this one was all but lost to the public.

But Arizona’s Family Investigates obtained a downloaded copy of the mugshot and arrest information that was posted on May 4, 2023.

This was not the first time charges against Bal had been dropped, dismissed or not pursued.

Arizona’s Family Investigates identified 40 criminal charges against Bal over the past 17 years. At least 18 of those charges were dropped.

Records from Phoenix Municipal Court, Navajo County Superior Court, Pinal County, Casa Grande Justice Court, Yuma Municipal Court and Orange County, California, show charges ranging from misdemeanor trespass to felony battery upon a police officer.

Bal was sentenced to prison multiple times in Arizona and served two years in jail in California.

His most recent prison sentence stemmed from an arrest in July of 2023, just two months after he was released from the Maricopa County Jail.

Bal was arrested on drug paraphernalia charges in Navajo County. He was sentenced in April of 2024 to six months in prison and served three months until his release on July 19, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections.

His parole was set to expire Sept. 23.

Had the drug and trespass cases proceeded to a prosecution in Maricopa County, Bal would likely have been in prison at the time of the shooting.

“I don’t really want to talk about the suspect, because he doesn’t deserve our breath. But I will tell you that it’s infuriating that someone with a long criminal history like his would be allowed to be out amongst the community and continue. I mean, he has demonstrated that he’s a drain on society, not a positive influence,” said Darrell Kriplean, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association

An earlier version of this story indicated Bal was also booked into the Maricopa County Jail on burglary charges. The MCSO website from the arrest date contained those charges, but the charges do not appear on the initial appearance paperwork obtained by Arizona’s Family Investigates on Thursday.

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