Katya Schwenk
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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.
Aidan Piekarz, 22
Officers shot and killed Piekarz in the early morning of March 12 in north Phoenix. Police were called to a north Phoenix neighborhood after reports of a man with a gun in the street. They found Piekarz, shirtless and holding a gun. According to body camera footage, officer Jonathan Gay shot Piekarz after the 22-year-old continued advancing with a gun toward the officer and ignored commands to drop the gun. Gay then shot Piekarz again after he raised the gun with his right arm. Piekarz fell on top of his gun. Gay’s body camera captured video but no audio of the encounter because he forgot to turn it on until after he shot Piekarz. The other officer’s body camera footage has not been released. 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.
Jason Anthony Arrieta, 40
Phoenix officers shot and killed Arrieta in west Phoenix on March 13. Four 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. Body camera footage shows them chasing Arrieta through the complex and him refusing commands to drop the rifle. Two of the four officers, Ricky Christensen and Adrian Samaniego, shot him. The officers then disarmed him by taking away the rifle that was strapped to his chest and performed CPR for about six minutes until the fire department arrived. 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.
Justin Carl Schmidt, 36
Phoenix officer Thomas Patterson shot and killed Schmidt while he was barricaded in his townhome at 43rd Avenue and Medlock Drive early in the morning on March 15. According to 911 calls and body camera footage, officers responded to a report of a fight at the address and found a woman and a young girl locked on a patio behind a gate. Officers broke down the gate and freed them after the woman told them Schmidt had “cocked a gun.” An approximately two-hour-long stand-off followed, during which Schmidt barricaded himself in his home. He shot down a police drone, fired at a wall and fired twice out his window before Patterson shot him. The department said they sent two drones into the townhome and located him unresponsive in a bedroom upstairs. Body camera footage from an officer on the team sent in after the drones showed at least three handguns in the hallway and two long guns on the bed next to stuffed animals. They found Schmidt lying still near the window in the child’s room. Emergency calls released to New Times through a public records request show that Schmidt called his family multiple times during the standoff. 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.
