Tuesday afternoon, the Phoenix Police Department released its arrest report on Ernest "Marty" Atencio, the Army vet brutalized and Tased till brain-dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jails.
The report details two police encounters with Atencio on the evening of December 15.
The second, which resulted in Atencio's arrest, involved the 44 year-old allegedly causing a female victim to be "apprehensive of eminent physical injury by walking toward her in an aggressive manner, coming within an inch of her, and yelling at her."
The woman told police officers that Atencio "had been violently kicking an apartment door" on the second floor of a building, and that he had "aggressively" pointed his cell phone at her.
Afraid of a physical confrontation, the woman phoned the police.
The report also states that, "After a few moments of yelling at her, Atencio then got distracted by a car and began chasing it."
You can read the entire report, here.
The most revealing part of the report, written by Officer Sarah Roberts, recounts an initial contact with Atencio at a 7-11, near 28th Drive and Peoria Avenue.
There, Atencio "was asked to leave the property, which he did without incident."
Roberts describes Atencio as someone with obvious mental health issues. That's a fact that Atencio's family has acknowledged.
Indeed, they've indicated that Atencio was bipolar and when off his meds, he acted oddly. Sometimes the police would be called as a result.
What Roberts describes falls into the pattern that Atencio's loved ones have indicated.
Atencio's unusual behavior "appeared to be mental in nature," and "not due to drugs."
She writes, "He was alert and would respond to questions, however, he would get easily distracted and speak of random and odd things."
The report continues:
"[Atencio] showed no signs of being a danger to himself or others, he simply appeared to be not medicated and engaged in very random conversation. He was not violent at all toward any officer or civilian present. Atencio stated that he lived down the street and as we had no crime he was instructed to return to his home."
Later, Roberts and Officer Joshua James received the second call involving Atencio.
"The victim stated that Atencio was yelling," Roberts writes. "But she was scared and could not provide me with any quotes other than she remembered him asking for a cigarette. The victim had never seen or met Atencio before."
Told that he was being placed under arrest, Atencio did not resist, says Roberts, "He just asked that someone hold his phone that was still in his hand."
Eventually, Atencio was taken to the MCSO's Fourth Avenue Jail, where video shows him being non-violent and generally passive.
Nevertheless, he was jumped by eight or nine uniformed personnel, with more joining in. After being Tased, he was taken to an ironically-named "safe cell" where he was stripped and left naked and motionless.
Atencio's family and their lawyer Mike Manning believe Marty Atencio breathed his last breath on his own in that cell.
Uniformed personnel later returned to perform CPR, and Atencio was shipped off to Saint Joseph's Hospital, where he was kept alive on life support for a few days longer.
When life support was removed, Aterncio died on December 20.
On January 4, he was laid to rest with full military honors at National Memorial Cemetery in Phoenix.
