Phoenix Police Department
Audio By Carbonatix
Around 8:15 p.m. on Feb. 23, a family was playing in a South Phoenix park when a man on a bicycle rode by and pointed a gun at them. Roughly 10 minutes later, the man lay dying on the ground with Phoenix cops surrounding him, an apparent victim of his own weapon.
On Monday, the Phoenix Police Department released a “critical incident briefing” on the death of the man, identified as 34-year-old Dylan Fohrenkam. The briefings are issued two weeks after any officer-involved shooting or in-custody death, and often include snippets of body-worn camera footage and 911 audio. Phoenix New Times also obtained longer, unedited body-cam footage and dispatch audio via a public records request. Though body-cam footage shows officers asking a witness about footage from their home security system, none was included in response to New Times’ records request.
According to 911 audio provided to New Times, a concerned father called police a little after 8 p.m. to say that Fohrenkam had ridden by on his bicycle while his children were playing at the playground at Roesley Park, on South 15th Avenue. Fohrenkam allegedly pointed a handgun — correctly identified by the father as a 9-millimeter in a 911 call — at the children before saying, “Good night” and riding away toward the park’s bathrooms.
Police swarmed the area. Fohrenkam fled on his bike through a nearby neighborhood. He then ditched the bike and ran toward a house on Atlanta Street. Multiple officers were close behind him. Though a police incident report says officers observed Fohrenkam reach for his waistband, body-worn camera footage from three officers involved, obtained by New Times, does not show that clearly.
One officer, identified in police documents only as Officer Ranzau, fired a 40-millimeter less-lethal foam stun baton at Fohrenkam as he fled toward the house. From the shaky body-cam video, it’s not clear if the baton had any effect or even struck Fohrenkam at all. As Fohrenkam continued to run along the home’s porch, an officer identified as Officer Sweeney tackled him from behind. A shot then rang out, according to police, though it cannot be clearly heard on body-cam footage.
Officers piled onto Fohrenkam, wrenching his hands behind his back and demanding that he not reach for his gun. “You fucking reach and I’ll kill you!” Ranzau yelled. Soon after, officers noticed Fohrenkam’s gun on the ground and recognized that Fohrenkam had been shot in the chest, apparently by his own weapon, identified as a black Palmetto State Armory 9-millimeter handgun. The officers cut off Fohrenkam’s clothes and applied a chest seal to his front and back.
‘Works for me’
The bullet apparently also grazed Sweeney, the officer who tackled Fohrenkam as his gun went off. As officers handcuffed Fohrenkam, Sweeney asked someone to check his left shoulder. Walking back to the street, Sweeney removed his uniform, bulletproof vest and undershirt to find a bruise near his clavicle. Police said Sweeney was treated for a minor injury at a hospital and then released.
As for Fohrenkam, the Phoenix Fire Department transported him to Banner University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about an hour after the initial 911 call.
That didn’t appear to bother Sweeney, the officer bruised by Fohrenkam’s bullet as they fell to the ground. In the minutes immediately after the apparent self-inflicted shooting, Ranzau’s body-cam footage captured him giving Sweeney an update on Fohrenkam’s prognosis.
“Sounds like homie’s fucking not gonna make it,” Ranzau said.
“Yeah?” Sweeney responded.
“He’s agonal right now,” Ranzau said, using a medical term that generally means gasping for breath due to a lack of oxygen. “They put a chest seal on him.”
“Sweet,” replied Sweeney. “Works for me.”
Fohrenkam was the second person to die as a result of an interaction with Phoenix police this year; there has since been a third. The first was a man whom an officer mistakenly and hastily killed as he subdued a home invader. Last year, Phoenix officers killed 11 people, down from 14 the year before.
While other critical incidents involving Phoenix cops are investigated by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Phoenix police said that no outside agency is investigating Fohrenkam’s death. However, the incident is under administrative investigation. New Times has also requested the full names of the officers involved but has not yet received them. The department’s use-of-force database lists no previous incidents in which they used lethal force.
