Phoenix Police Department
Audio By Carbonatix
On March 13, two Phoenix police officers shot and killed 40-year-old Jason Anthony Arrieta after his wife called the police on him for domestic violence.
The Phoenix Police Department released its “critical incident briefing” last week on Arrieta’s death. The briefing is made up of a video and an accompanying write-up, and includes audio from a 911 call and footage from three out of the four officers’ body-worn cameras. The department releases the briefing approximately two weeks after an in-custody death, including fatal officer-involved shootings.
Phoenix New Times received longer versions of the 911 call audio and body-cam footage through a public records request. The nearly six-minute-long audio file and approximately 45 minutes of accompanying footage paint a fuller picture of what happened at the apartment complex near 3500 W. Osborn Road that day.
The shooting
The incident was set into motion when a woman called 911 to report that Arrieta, her husband, had beaten her.
“I have my kids, and I just want him gone,” she said, while her 8-year-old daughter cried in the background. The woman shared that Arrieta had beaten her before and that she’d obtained an order of protection against him, but he hadn’t yet been served with it. She’d told him she wanted him gone from the apartment and he’d started “flipping out.”
“I’m going to be with him or it’s going to be death. If I don’t be with him, I’m going to die,” the woman recounted Arrieta saying. “He started accusing me of cheating. Stuff like that.”
The woman said that she had “bruises all over my body — cuts on my face, on my neck.” When asked by a dispatcher if Arrieta owned guns, she said he did, that she didn’t know where they were. She said Arrieta might get aggressive with officers, though he hadn’t done so with police before.
“He’s just had a history of violence,” she said.
The woman had left Arrieta in her apartment to call 911. While on the phone, she’d gone back to find him gone. She hung up when a responding officer arrived at her door.
Body camera footage not included in the Phoenix police’s briefing picks up here. Footage shows that police officer Christopher Sidwa and an unidentified fourth officer spoke with the woman at her front door and asked her for more information about Arrieta, including what he looks like and where he went.
Perhaps prompted by radio communications not captured by his body cam, Sidwa returned to his car and drove further into the apartment complex, exited and hurriedly went to stand between two of the buildings. Seconds later, Arrieta rushed by with a gun.
“Hey! Whoa! Whoa! Put it down!” Sidwa yelled at him.
Arrieta was fleeing officer Adrian Samaniego, having taken off running within seconds of Samaniego’s arrival at the complex. “You’re going to have to kill me,” Arrieta can be heard saying in enhanced audio from Samaniego’s body-cam footage included in the briefing.
Officer Ricky Christensen also joined the chase immediately after he pulled into the parking lot, intercepting them right after Arrieta passed Sidwa. Christensen’s body camera footage captures what may have been Arrieta’s final words before the officers shot him: “Hey, don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”
Arrieta rounded the corner of a building with all four officers in hot pursuit. Body-cam footage shows Arrieta carrying a black rifle.
“Stop! I’m going to shoot you! I’m going to fucking shoot you!” Christensen yelled first.
“Stop! Stop! We’re going to fucking shoot you!” Samaniego yelled immediately after, just before the two pulled their triggers multiple times. Arrieta fell to the ground.
In all, the fatal encounter took about 45 seconds.
The aftermath
The unedited body camera footage acquired by New Times shows what took place following the shooting.
All four officers stood with their guns pointed at Arrieta, who was lying on the ground. Samaniego yelled at Arrieta to “fucking put the gun down!” As Arrieta moved his right arm towards his chest, Christensen also told him to stop.
“Hand away from the gun man, keep your hand away from the gun,” Christensen said.
After waiting about 40 seconds, the officers decided to approach Arrieta. In a fatal police shooting a day earlier, body-cam footage showed officers waited around five minutes to approach a suspect they shot because the man was lying on top of his gun.
Christensen approached Arrieta, who lay on the gravel in grey sweatpants with black shoes and a black shirt. His black fitted hat had fallen off and was next to him. Strapped to his chest was a rifle.
“It’s strapped to him. Just fucking handcuff him,” said Christensen, who disarmed Arrieta and walked away while Sidwa and the other officer rolled Arrieta on his stomach, revealing a pool of blood that soaked into the rocks underneath him. Once Arrieta was cuffed, Samaniego, the last officer with his gun out, holstered it.
Arrieta’s wife then approached, screaming and sobbing as the officers retrieved the rifle and cuffed her husband.
“Let me see him, let me see him,” she yelled over and over. “He’s dead, he’s dead,” she shouted, crouched at Christensen’s feet.
Christensen assured her that the fire department was coming and led her away to sit near a patrol car. He stayed with her silently while she sobbed until other officers arrived on the scene to replace him.
During that time, the other officers realized that Arrietta was still breathing and had a pulse. About two minutes after the officers shot Arrieta, Sidwa and the unidentified officer began CPR.
“I’m so glad he wasn’t shooting or I would have been toast,” said Sidwa while he pumped Arrieta’s chest.
The unidentified officer commiserated.
“I mean, I know it was a paintball gun…” he said.
Samamiego and Sidwa quickly corrected him.
“This is not a paintball,” said Samamiego. “That’s a legit gun, dude.”
“No, it’s legit,” said Sidwa, while he continued compressions.
“I thought he was going to fucking shoot Ricky,” Samamiego said, referring to Christensen.
Sidwa said he’d thought the same thing at first, though.
“When I saw it, I thought he was a kid with a paintball gun,” he said.
Six minutes after the officers began CPR, the fire department took over. The officers then did wellness checks on the ground-floor apartments next to where the shooting took place before continuing their recollections of the hectic moment.
“The crazy part, nothing happened today other than a violation of their order of protection,” the unidentified officer said while they watched Arrietta’s body be lifted onto a gurney.
“He did tell her that he was going to kill her,” Sidwa responded.
Matt Hennie
What’s next
Arrieta was the fourth of five people killed by Phoenix police officers this year and the second in a spate of three fatal shootings by the department that took place within a few days of each other. The department killed 11 people last year, down from the previous two years. That’s significantly down from a high in 2018, when Phoenix cops killed nearly twice as many people, the most by any department in the country that year. However, 11 shooting deaths is still higher than many similarly-sized departments.
The shooting is being investigated by the Major Incidents Division of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will ultimately decide whether criminal charges are brought against the officers.
It’s also subject to an internal review by the Phoenix Police Department. Phoenix police’s policy on the use of deadly force says it is justified only when a “suspect is acting or threatening to cause death or serious physical injury to the employee or others,” and has the opportunity and “the means or instrumentalities to do so.” It also requires that de-escalation tactics “have been tried, have failed, or are determined to have not been feasible,” and that suspects be “given the person a reasonable opportunity to comply voluntarily.”
Christensen and Samaniego, the officers who shot Arrieta, were identified by the department in a press release about the incident. The department’s online use-of-force databases show that Samaniego was investigated for use-of-force twice between January 2018 and March 3, 2026. The suspect was not armed in either of the incidents, and Samaniego did not use his firearm. Internal investigations found both incidents, which took place in November 2022 and in September 2025, to be within department policy.
Christensen did not appear in the databases.
The department did not release the names of the two other officers who responded to the call but did not shoot Arrieta. However, Phoenix New Times identified Sidwa through the body-worn camera footage, and the department confirmed his involvement.
