The Phoenix Police Department gestured at filling in some of the blanks Friday, releasing video from Clay’s arrest in a critical incident briefing. The briefings are highly edited videos of incidents that are posted publicly after any police shooting or in-custody death. They are narrated by officers and include dispatch audio, body-worn camera footage and other kinds of video such as surveillance or helicopter footage.
The footage from Jan. 10, shot hours before Clay's death, shows the 33-year-old on top of a roof as officers use less-lethal weapons in an attempt to force him to surrender. Officers are then seen arresting Clay, though he is only barely visible at certain points.
But the footage provides no audio or video of the time between his arrest and his death — hours during which Clay told officers he was struggling to breathe, resulting in him being rushed to the hospital and undergoing an unsuccessful surgery.
A host of questions remain unanswered. New Times has posed many of them to the police, with limited success.
Clay was the first person to die while in Phoenix police custody this year. Another man has been shot and killed by officers since then. Last year, Phoenix police shot and killed 14 people, an increase from 12 in 2023 and 10 in 2022.
'Get the fuck down now!’
Officers tried to arrest Clay, who was wanted for violating parole in another state, near 43rd Avenue and Thomas Road at around 2 p.m. on Jan. 10. Department spokesperson Sgt. Phil Krynsky said police also wanted to question Clay for an armed robbery investigation.Police said officers tried making contact with Clay, though the briefing contains no footage of that. Clay fled from police, who used a drone to track him as he made his way onto the roof of a nearby home. Roughly a half-dozen officers surrounded the building.
Drone footage included in the briefing shows that Clay appeared to be armed; however, it’s unclear whether police knew this at the time. Police said they recovered a handgun after Clay’s arrest.
Unable to get Clay to come down from the roof, officers began to fire less-lethal projectiles at Clay. Officers fired at least five projectiles, which deliver a painful impact but are not as harmful as bullets. It’s not clear how many hit Clay. Bodycam footage from one officer showed Clay reacting at least twice to impacts from the projectiles.
After the last projectile hit Clay, one officer screamed, “Get the fuck down now! We’re fucking done!” while Clay recoiled in pain. He eventually inched toward the edge of the roof and fell to the ground. The officers quickly pounced on him.
Police spokesperson Sgt. Rob Scherer said in a media advisory that Clay “struggled” against five officers while they tried to handcuff him, though that isn’t visible in the video. He added that one officer “delivered several forearm strikes to get [Clay] in handcuffs,” which is visible in the video in the moments after Clay fell to the ground from a height of 8 or 9 feet.
Phoenix cops fired nonlethal projectiles at Turrell Clay until he got down from a roof, after which they arrested him.
Phoenix Police Department
Unanswered questions
No video or audio of what happened after Clay was placed in handcuffs was included in the briefing, leaving the department’s narrative as the only information available about Clay’s last hours. Police spokesperson Sgt. Brian Bower declined to answer Phoenix New Times' question about why the briefing stopped with Clay’s arrest.According to police, paramedics arrived and released Clay into police care. Later, while Clay was “in custody” — though police have not said where that was — Clay told officers he was having a hard time breathing.
Police said they drove Clay to a nearby hospital, where doctors said he would need advanced care. A private ambulance took Clay to a cardiac hospital, where he died during a surgery. Police declined to specify the hospitals and the surgical procedure to New Times.
Police said Clay died “four and a half hours after being initially contacted by officers,” which would place his time of death at approximately 6:30 p.m. The department declined to say at what time Clay was taken to the first hospital. It also did not release the names of the officers involved and declined to release them to New Times.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office opened a criminal investigation into Clay’s death, and police are conducting an internal investigation to determine if the officers followed department policy. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner is still investigating Clay’s death. A final report is pending.
It’s unclear whether the projectiles or the officers’ physical force played a role in Clay’s death. It also remains unknown whether officers ensured that Clay received prompt treatment during the significant chunk of time he was in their custody.
Mysterious in-custody deaths aren’t a new phenomenon with local law enforcement agencies. In 2023, Benjamin Austin died from what Phoenix police called a “medical episode” while in custody. The same year, Cassidy Stigler died while in a Maricopa County jail. In November, Maricopa County approved a more than $4 million settlement to the family of Akeel Terrell, who died in a county jail cell in 2021. The city of Phoenix also paid Terrell’s family $800,000 to settle claims made against police officers involved in his arrest.
