Phoenix Police Department
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In the first two months of 2025, four people were killed by Phoenix police — three of whom were shot and one of whom suffered a heart attack after being hit in the chest with a less-lethal weapon. Six more fatal shootings have occurred since mid-August, bringing the total to 10, which is still under the pace of last year but on pace to match 2023’s total.
Last year, Phoenix police officers shot and killed 14 people, surpassing the death toll of 12 in 2023 and 10 in 2022. That increase came while the Department of Justice wrapped up a three-year investigation of Phoenix cops by publishing a blistering report in June 2024. The report found that Phoenix police regularly committed civil rights violations, including discriminating against people of color, using excessive and unnecessarily deadly force and arresting unhoused people without cause.
Former Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan was hired on an interim basis in September 2022 to lead the department as it dealt with the probe. Sullivan stepped down in April and the city later hired a replacement in Matt Giordano, a former Phoenix cop who worked for the department for 20 years before moving to the county sheriff’s office and the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.
Mayor Kate Gallego and other city councilmembers pushed back against the notion that the city’s embattled police force requires independent oversight, arguing that the city was making strides in implementing reforms. The city recently adopted a new use-of-force policy but also undercut the chief of its Office of Accountability and Transparency and watered down its civilian review board. With the election of Donald Trump in November, any possibility of federally enforced reform became toast.
But the conclusions of the report haven’t been erased from the collective memory, or from Giordano’s.
“The information in that report didn’t go away. What created that report didn’t go away,” Giordano said at his first press conference as chief. “We should always be looking to evolve.”
Here’s a rundown of all the people who have been killed by Phoenix police this year. Where available, full stories about the deaths are linked to the names.
Turrell Clay, 33
Clay died after Phoenix police officers arrested him on Jan. 10 on an out-of-state warrant for a parole violation. Clay was shot by police repeatedly with less-lethal projectile weapons while he was on top of a roof. While recoiling in pain, officers screamed at him to get off the roof. He inched to the edge and fell to the ground, after which officers pounced and immediately began beating him. Clay was cleared by paramedics at the scene but complained of chest pain while being transported by police, who took him to a hospital. Clay died during a surgical procedure. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide, listing the cause as blunt-force trauma from the less-lethal weapons fired at him.
Christopher Phillips, 45
On Jan. 17, a Phoenix cop shot and killed Phillips while he was running away with a single rifle shot. Police said Phillips pointed a gun at an officer, but footage from a body camera released by the department doesn’t clearly show that. Police said they received complaints about “multiple trespassers in an abandoned home.” When cops arrived, Phillips jumped a fence and ran from police. After being shot, Phillips died at a hospital.
David Garcia, 41
On Feb. 12, Phoenix police received a report that Garcia was forcing a woman into his vehicle at gunpoint near I-10 and 51st Avenue. Hours later, officers located Garcia and the woman in Mesa. Following his truck into Gilbert, police said they unsuccessfully tried to immobilize it, after which Garcia made a U-turn and shot at officers. The officers used several cars to stop the truck and four of them fired at the truck, hitting Garcia, who later died at a hospital. Police removed the woman from the car and discovered she had a gunshot wound. According to Gilbert police, who are investigating the incident, a Mesa police ballistic exam indicated that the bullet fragments in the woman were from Garcia’s gun.
Dominic Gracia, 31
Gracia was shot and killed while trying to hide in a recycling bin, according to police. Just after midnight on Feb. 19, an officer patrolling South Phoenix saw a red truck speeding and attempted to pull the driver over, according to police. Gracia ran into a neighborhood while leaving the truck in drive as it drifted toward a house. The officer stopped the truck. Other officers arrived with a canine unit to search the area, finding Gracia in the bin. Body-worn camera footage showed Gracia poking his hand out and blindly firing one shot from a handgun, prompting two officers to fire a dozen bullets at him.
Rocky Joe Ellis, 47
Around 4 a.m. on Aug. 19, police were alerted about a man who was trespassing in an IHOP at 20th and Northern avenues and cutting himself in front of employees and customers. When they arrived, they saw Ellis was wielding a hatchet. Officers asked Ellis to drop it, but he didn’t and instead started walking toward them. One cop fired two less-lethal stun batons, which the department said had “limited effect,” before another officer shot Ellis with a rifle. Body-cam footage released by police showed officers waited six minutes to give Ellis medical aid after he was shot, leaving him motionless on the ground. Ellis was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Arizona Department of Public Safety is investigating the shooting.
Efrain Hidalgo, 36
After midnight on Aug. 31, two Phoenix officers stopped Hidlago, who they saw riding a bicycle around 20th Street and Southern Avenue, because he was not using a headlight. The body-worn camera footage provided to New Times does not contain audio in the moments leading up to when an officer rushed out of a car and tackled Hidalgo. After a brief physical struggle, Hidalgo allegedly took out a knife, at which point the other officer fired his gun. The officers did not warn Hidalgo to drop the knife. Instead, Officer Matthew Olmstead fired at him nine times from about 10 feet away. After the third shot, Hidalgo collapsed to the ground and police waited five minutes to provide aid. Hidalgo died from his wounds at the hospital. The killing was criticized by the Phoenix activist group Poder In Action and is still under investigation by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Ote-Tee Brooks Nalwood, 32
Around noon on Sept. 8, police responded to a call about a gunpoint cell phone robbery near 35th Avenue and Fillmore Street. Finding a car matching the one they were told the alleged thief used to flee, officers stopped the driver, who was Nalwood. According to police, while several cop cars surrounded Nalwood’s vehicle, he pointed a gun at them and two officers fired. After a tense, 11-minute standoff, police said Nalwood pointed the gun at them again and a third officer fatally shot him with a rifle. While the body-worn camera footage from the three officers doesn’t clearly show Nalwood pointing a weapon at officers, several claimed in the footage that he did. Nalwood was taken to a hospital and died. An investigation by the Arizona Department of Public Safety remains ongoing.
David Steinbach, 52
On the morning of Sept. 28, police received a call that Steinbach allegedly fired a gun in his apartment and pointed it at himself, according to Sgt. Jen Zak. After officers negotiated with Steinbach from outside his apartment on 32nd Avenue and Bell Road for about six hours, he came out with a gun in his hand. Police told Steinbach to drop the gun, which he allegedly pointed at officers. An officer fired three shots, killing him. Police body-worn camera footage released to New Times did not show the moment that Steinbach pointed the gun at police. The killing is being investigated by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Victor Altamirano, 58
On the morning of Oct. 2, police received a call about a man in a home who was threatening suicide and wielding a knife. According to a police advisory, the man said he would confront police if they responded to the home. Police responded and Altamirano ran out of the home with the knife above his head, at which point two officers fired at him, killing him. The police advisory said officers also used less-lethal pepper ball and stun baton weapons on Altamirano, though it wasn’t clear if police used those less-lethal options before or after firing at him with their service weapons. The incident is being investigated by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and a fuller briefing from police is expected by Oct. 16.
Francisco Aviles Barcenas, 47
Around 8 p.m. on Oct. 11, police were called to 83rd Avenue and Indian School Road after being told that a man with a knife and a woman were fighting at an apartment complex. Department spokesperson Sgt. Phil Krynsky said that when officers arrived, they saw Barcenas holding the woman to the ground with a blade to her throat and “gave multiple commands to the man to stop.” Allegedly, he did not comply. The cops shot Barcenas and pulled the woman away. The fire department arrived and ruled Barcenas dead at the scene. The Arizona Department of Public Safety is now charged with investigating the shooting and more information is expected around Oct. 25.
