Katya Schwenk
Audio By Carbonatix
Phoenix police officers have killed five people so far in 2026, including a man who was protecting his family and restraining an armed intruder until police came. That’s nearly half the number of people killed by the department in 2025.
Three of the shootings took place during a five-day period in mid-March. A sixth person also died during an encounter with police after he accidentally shot himself when officers tackled him.
Last year, Phoenix police officers killed 11 people. Six were killed in a nearly two-month stretch, prompting outrage and criticism from activists who’d hoped the department had turned a new leaf after killing 14 people in 2024, an increase from 12 in 2023 and 10 in 2022. That late-summer run of shootings coincided with the hiring of new Police Chief Matt Giordano, who replaced interim chief Michael Sullivan.
Sullivan helmed the department as it dealt with a Department of Justice investigation that resulted in a blistering June 2024 report on Phoenix police. The report found that Phoenix cops regularly committed civil rights violations, including discriminating against people of color, using excessive and unnecessarily deadly force and arresting unhoused people without cause.
Here are all the people who have been killed by Phoenix police officers this year, along with the circumstances of their deaths. Where applicable, click the name of each person for more details on their killings.
Christian Diaz Rendon, 36
Rendon was subduing an armed intruder in his home in South Phoenix when a Phoenix police officer shot and killed him on Jan. 26. Edgar Garcia, his landlord’s son, fired a shotgun and a pistol into the home, hitting one of Rendon’s children in the ankle, before entering the house from the backyard. While his family huddled upstairs and called 911, Rendon struggled with Garcia near the front door. Phoenix police officer Jason Valenzuela arrived on scene in response to the 911 call and promptly shot and killed Rendon, who was on top of Garcia and holding him down after successfully disarming him. Body camera footage shows family members yelling to Valenzuela that Rendon had subdued Garcia before the officer fired the fatal rifle round into Rendon’s head. Garcia, who has a history of mental illness, was arrested and charged with 11 felonies stemming from the incident by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, including felony murder for Rendon’s killing. Valenzuela has not been criminally charged. The Arizona Department of Public Safety is investigating the shooting.
Jesus A. Gonzalez Florez, 41
Numerous Phoenix police officers and Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers killed Florez in a barrage of bullets as he attempted to flee from them in his car in South Phoenix on Feb. 27. According to DPS, troopers tried to pull Florez over for a traffic violation but he did not stop. They pursued him, eventually using a grappling device to stop his car. Florez and his passenger got out of the car and the passenger was taken into custody, but Florez got back into his car and tried to flee despite his vehicle still being tethered to a DPS SUV. State troopers and officers pinned the car in and surrounded him with their guns drawn. According to body camera footage, an officer yelled “stop fucking reaching” at Florez before the officers, including Phoenix officers Bryce Segatto and Vontray Gardner, began firing their weapons into the car. Florez died at the scene. Neither agency has claimed that Florez brandished a weapon, though DPS said a machete was found under his passenger seat after the shooting. DPS’s Major Incidents Division is investigating the shooting and the Phoenix Police Department is also conducting an internal investigation. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will determine whether or not to bring criminal charges.
Aiden Pierkaz, 22
Officers shot and killed Pierkaz in the early morning of March 12 in north Phoenix. According to a police advisory, officers contacted Pierkaz because he matched the description of a shooting suspect. As they approached, they saw that he had a handgun and ordered him to drop it. Pierkaz didn’t obey, police claim — though a police advisory does not say Pierkaz raised a weapon to the officers at that time — and an officer shot him. Pierkaz fell and then pointed his gun at officers, and an officer shot him again. He died at the hospital. A fuller briefing on Pierkaz’s death is expected to be released around March 26.
Jason Anthony Arrieta, 40
Phoenix officers shot and killed Arrieta in west Phoenix on March 13. Officers were responding to a domestic violence call in an apartment complex near 3500 West Osborn and found Arrieta running through the complex with a rifle. Police said he refused commands to drop the rifle and officers shot him. A police advisory on the shooting did not say he pointed the rifle at officers. A fuller briefing on Arrieta’s death is expected around March 27.
Justin Carl Schmidt, 36
Phoenix officers shot and killed Schmidt while he was barricaded in his apartment at 43rd Avenue and Medlock Drive early in the morning on March 15. According to a police advisory, officers responded to a report of a fight at the address and found a woman and a young girl locked in the apartment’s backyard. “The woman told officers the man inside was armed,” the advisory reads, adding that officers used a tool to open an iron gate to free them. Officers saw Schmidt inside the apartment and ordered him to drop his gun. He refused and barricaded himself inside, popping out at one point to shoot down a drone officers had flown to monitor him. Schmidt also fired multiple shots while inside the apartment — though a police advisory does not explicitly say he fired them at officers — before officers shot and killed him. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A fuller briefing on his death is expected around March 29.
