Investigators released images of four people seen near Sueno Park after 19-year-old Tumusifu Bazirake was fatally assaulted during a soccer game.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Phoenix police are seeking information from people who were near a west Phoenix soccer field where 19-year-old Tumusifu Bazirake was assaulted during a game and later died, an investigation that remains focused on identifying those responsible for the attack. Police released images Aug. 20 of four people who were in the area and said they could have information important to the case, while stopping short of identifying them as suspects.

The appeal marked a new stage in a homicide investigation that began after Bazirake died Aug. 13, one week after officers were called to a field near Sueno Park. Authorities have confirmed that several people assaulted him after a fight broke out during a soccer game and that those involved fled before officers arrived. Bazirake’s family has offered a more detailed account of how the confrontation began, saying players on the opposing side became angry after a goal and that Bazirake stepped in when his brother was attacked. Police have not publicly confirmed that account as the cause of the fight.

The case began shortly after 8 p.m. Aug. 6, when officers responded to a report of an unresponsive person in a field in the area of 43rd Avenue and the Sueno Park neighborhood. Investigators learned that Bazirake had been playing soccer when a fight broke out. Police said multiple people assaulted him and then left the area. Phoenix firefighters took Bazirake to a hospital in extremely critical condition. He remained hospitalized until Aug. 13, when investigators were notified that he had died from his injuries and the case became a homicide investigation.

For detectives, a major challenge has been identifying the people who were at the field when the violence occurred. On Aug. 20, police distributed images of four males who investigators said had been in the area. The department described them as people who might have information that could assist detectives. The wording was significant: authorities did not say the four were attackers, suspects or persons charged with any crime. Police instead asked the public to help identify them so investigators could speak with them about what they saw or knew.

Bazirake’s brother, Jeanpaul Bazirake, gave local news outlets an account of the confrontation that went beyond what police had publicly released. He said his team’s goal angered players on the other side and that a confrontation followed. “We scored on them, and they got mad,” he told KPNX in an interview later cited by Law&Crime. Jeanpaul said several people began attacking him and that his brother entered the confrontation in an effort to protect him. He described Tumusifu as being surrounded and assaulted after he became involved. That account remains a family witness account rather than a police finding about what sparked the violence.

Police have confirmed several central parts of the sequence without adopting the family’s explanation of motive. Their public statements say Bazirake was participating in a soccer game, a fight broke out, several people assaulted him and those people ran away. Authorities have not publicly named the participants, explained whether the match was part of an organized league or described what happened immediately before the fighting started. Early reports also gave slightly different nearby cross streets for the field, though local reporting consistently placed the incident at or near Sueno Park in west Phoenix.

The investigation unfolded as Bazirake’s family was preparing for a very different milestone. Relatives told FOX 10 Phoenix that he had recently graduated from high school, planned to attend college and hoped eventually to become a firefighter. His mother told the station, through a translator, that the family had moved to Arizona from Congo about eight years earlier. Family members also referred to him as Bahati Tumusifu. Those details became part of the public portrait of the teenager as relatives and friends moved from planning for his education to mourning his death.

The family held a public vigil at Sueno Park later in August, according to local reporting, bringing mourners back to the place where the fatal encounter began. A fundraiser was also established to help the family with funeral expenses. An online funeral notice listed services for Sept. 5 at Universal South Mountain Mortuary in Phoenix, followed by arrangements involving Greenwood Memory Lawn. The memorial events came as the criminal investigation remained unresolved, leaving the family to mark Bazirake’s life while detectives continued trying to determine who participated in the assault.

Several questions have remained outside the public record. Police have not released a complete reconstruction of the fight, identified the people who allegedly struck Bazirake or said how many attackers they believe were directly involved. Authorities also have not publicly established that the soccer goal described by Bazirake’s brother was the reason the confrontation began. Earlier reporting said the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner would determine an official cause of death. The available public reports reviewed for this story did not provide a later medical examiner finding.

The distinction between witnesses and suspects has also remained important as police sought the public’s help. When officers released the four images, the department said the pictured individuals had been in the area and might possess information important to the investigation. An Arizona Republic report noted that police did not call the four suspects. That means the photographs were intended to generate investigative leads rather than publicly accuse the pictured people of taking part in Bazirake’s death. No criminal charge against anyone was announced in the Aug. 20-21 reports reviewed for this story.

Investigators have continued to direct people with information to the Phoenix Police Department and Silent Witness, which accepts anonymous tips. The most recent detailed public updates located during a review of the case were published Aug. 20 and Aug. 21, when police were still seeking people who may have witnessed the confrontation and no arrests had been announced. No later credible public report located in the review established that anyone had been charged. The case therefore remains publicly unresolved based on the latest available reporting reviewed here.

Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.