Video: Phoenix cop shoots armed man who called 911 on himself

In the late morning of Dec. 7, Phoenix police officers scoured a Deer Valley neighborhood after someone called 911 to report a man threatening to shoot someone with a handgun. After an officer located him, the man twice raised his gun at the officer, who shot and killed him.

After the shooting, the Phoenix Police Department determined that the man, 75-year-old Michael Breuer, had called the police on himself.

Breuer was the 11th person killed by Phoenix police this year. Last year, Phoenix officers shot and killed 14 people, an increase from 12 in 2023 and 10 in 2022.

Video of Breuer’s killing was released Friday as part of a “critical incident briefing” created by Phoenix police. The department’s briefings are narrated by officers and made public after any police shooting or in-custody death. In addition to body-worn camera footage, the briefings typically include a limited selection of dispatch audio or surveillance footage from nearby businesses.

The briefing on Breuer’s killing also includes video footage recorded by a witness. That footage shows Breuer, on the ground after being shot in the stomach by officer Eric Larson, raising his gun slowly at Larson, who fired several times.

However, both the briefing and raw body-worn camera footage provided to Phoenix New Times via public records request contain no audio from the crucial moments before and during the shooting. The Axon body cameras used by Phoenix police do not record audio until activated, though they do soundlessly capture the previous 90 seconds. Larson didn’t activate his camera until he was rushing up to the blood-soaked Breuer after firing his final shots.

The incident is being investigated by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the conclusions of that investigation will be reviewed by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. The Phoenix Police Department is also conducting an internal investigation.

Larson, who has been on the force for nine years, has only been involved in three use-of-force incidents previously, none of which involved the use of a police firearm. 

‘I don’t want to shoot you’

The incident began with a 911 call apparently made by Breuer himself, a portion of which was included in the briefing video.

“There’s a guy with a gun out front,” Breuer told a dispatcher. Asked if the man was trying to hurt anyone or fight with someone, Breuer responded, “No. He’s just out there and he’s got a weapon. He’s got a pistol.”

After several minutes, police said, he rang again to say that “the man was now threatening to shoot someone,” police spokesperson Sgt. Rob Scherer said in the briefing video. However, audio from that second call was not included in the briefing.

Police began searching the neighborhood — including with a police helicopter — and Larson found him on a residential street. Though there is no audio of the beginning of their interaction, Larson is heard on body-cam footage describing it to other officers a few minutes after the shooting. He said he made contact with Breuer from inside his patrol vehicle and “could see that he had a black something in his hand.” Larson said Breuer then showed him the “something” and “I was like, ‘That’s definitely a handgun.’”

“I said, ‘Put the gun down,’” Larson continued. “He said, ‘No, you’re going to have to shoot me.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to shoot you,’”  Larson said. “So I said, ‘Put the gun down.’”

Body-cam video then showed Breuer raising the gun, at which point Larson fired one shot. Breuer then slowly sank to the ground and sat. About 15 seconds passed — still without audio on the body-cam footage – before Breuer fired several more times in quick succession. A separate video, recorded by a bystander and included in the briefing, shows the second round of shots happened when Breuer again raised the gun.

After Larson and other officers rushed in to administer aid, an officer asked him how many times he had fired. 

“About four, maybe five,” Larson responded, adding that he missed a couple shots. Officers noted that Breuer was shot at least three times, including once in the leg. Later, stepping away from the grisly scene, Larson began recounting the events leading up to the shooting for a couple of officers.

“So I hit him once, right in the stomach and he went down and was just kind of breathing. You know, we do all these things,” he said, before being cut off.

“Is your camera still on?” another officer asks.

Yes, Larson responds.

“I think we can take… turn it off,” the officer says.

The footage then ends.