Police say a confrontation tied to an alleged $100 debt ended with a fatal shooting outside a north Phoenix apartment complex.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — A 35-year-old mother of seven was fatally shot outside her apartment in north Phoenix on March 23 after an argument with a neighbor over an alleged $100 debt tied to a minor car accident, police and court records say.

Authorities say Danielle Jean Kassandra Little was shot during a confrontation with 21-year-old Daniel Rombach Jr., who lived in the same apartment complex near 11th Avenue and Mountain View Road. Police took Rombach into custody at the scene, and prosecutors later charged him with second-degree murder. The case quickly drew attention because family members said several of Little’s children heard or saw the shooting, turning a brief dispute over a small sum of money into a homicide case with lasting consequences for one family.

The confrontation unfolded at about 8:05 a.m., according to Phoenix police, when officers were called to the complex and found Little with a gunshot wound. She was taken to a hospital, where she later died. A probable cause affidavit described a tense exchange outside the apartment after Rombach demanded payment that Little had allegedly promised after accidentally backing into his car about a month earlier. Little’s husband told investigators he saw Rombach pull a handgun from his waistband while the couple’s children were behind him inside or near the apartment. The affidavit says Little challenged him, telling him he was not going to shoot her in front of her children, and prosecutors allege he then fired one round at close range before walking back to his apartment.

Investigators built the early case around statements from Little’s husband and details in the affidavit. According to that document, the argument on March 23 began after Little’s son broke a lawn ornament near an apartment unit close to where Rombach lived. The affidavit says Rombach stepped outside after hearing the boy apologize and again asked about the $100. Little’s husband told police that he backed away once he saw the gun because he knew the children were behind him. The affidavit says Rombach later told officers he did not intend to actually shoot Little and said he forgot the gun had no safety device. Police also wrote that he expressed remorse afterward. Investigators have not publicly described any evidence that the shooting was accidental, and the charge filed against him indicates prosecutors believe the facts support a murder case.

The fatal shooting traced back to what family members described as a minor fender bender in February. Relatives told local television reporters that Little had accidentally backed into the neighbor’s car and agreed to pay $100 to avoid involving police, even though her sister said there were no visible scratches. Her sister, Hailey Byer, said Little planned to repay the money but was short on cash after paying rent. Family members said that financial pressure shaped the weeks before the shooting and helped explain why a debt that might have ended with a note or another argument instead kept resurfacing. Byer said Little had struggled earlier in life but had gotten sober and was focused on her children. Relatives said she left behind her husband and seven children, including a premature baby still in neonatal intensive care.

Police detained Rombach without incident at the apartment complex and booked him into jail after the shooting. Local reporting said he was being held on a $1 million bond and that his next court date was scheduled for March 30. Phoenix police initially described the case as a deadly argument between neighbors and said the investigation remained active. The second-degree murder charge means prosecutors do not need to prove premeditation, but they do have to show conduct that led to Little’s death under Arizona law. Court proceedings are expected to focus on witness statements, the handgun, the sequence of the argument, and Rombach’s own remarks to investigators after the shooting. It was not immediately clear Thursday whether defense attorneys had publicly outlined a response to the allegations beyond the information contained in early court records.

For Little’s family, the scene remains fixed in memory as both a crime scene and the last place they saw her alive. Her son told local reporters he watched his mother fall and described the aftermath in stark terms. Byer, speaking through grief and anger, said the family wanted justice and struggled to understand how an argument over a small debt could end with a gunshot in front of children. Her husband, Kyle Daniels, said she would be forever loved and remembered. The apartment complex, near a busy stretch of north Phoenix, became the setting for a case that joined public records, police evidence and raw family testimony into one account of how quickly an ordinary weekday morning turned deadly.

The case remained in the court system as of April 16, with Rombach jailed on the murder charge and the next major milestone centered on scheduled proceedings in Maricopa County.

Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.