Phoenix police shoot, kill armed man they say assaulted cop

On the morning of April 29, two Phoenix police officers shot and killed 32-year-old Joseph Adam Mendez in a central Phoenix alley. The Phoenix Police Department said the officers killed him while trying to arrest him for outstanding felony warrants and an alleged earlier aggravated assault on a Tolleson police officer. 

The department has not publicly named Mendez as the shooting victim, but Phoenix New Times identified him through two different public records about the incident.

On Wednesday, the Phoenix Police Department released its “critical incident briefing” on the shooting. The briefing consists of a video and an accompanying write-up, and includes a photo, footage from two different officers’ body-worn cameras and footage from a surveillance camera. The department releases the briefings approximately two weeks after a critical incident, which includes a fatal shooting by an officer.

New Times received longer versions of the body-cam and surveillance footage through a public records request. Audio of 911 calls related to the incident was also requested, but the department did not release them and had no estimated release date. The department also used a drone in the incident, but did not respond to questions about whether it recorded any footage and whether that footage would be released. 

Nonetheless, the nearly two-minute-long surveillance video and approximately 14 minutes of accompanying body-cam footage paint a fuller picture of what happened near 700 West McDowell Road that morning.

Mendez reappeared from behind the dumpster, now on the other side. He jogged and glanced behind him at a second white pickup, which drove toward him. Then a white minivan swerved next to the dumpster, causing Mendez to back up quickly toward the alley wall. He raised his left arm, pointing it at the van as though pointing a gun, although the footage is shot from too far away for a gun to be visible. 

The officers driving the minivan and the parked pickup truck — Brent Urbatsch and Bryant Goff, both members of the Special Assignment Unit — jumped out of their vehicles. Body-cam footage shows that Urbatsch immediately pointed a handgun at Mendez. Someone yelled, although it’s not clear who. Then, with his back against the wall, Mendez raised his left arm again. Goff fired two rounds from his rifle. As Mendez slumped to the ground, Urbatsch fired his handgun once. 

Goff, who was driving the minivan and closer to Mendez, forgot to turn on his body cam before he jumped out of the car. He activated it right after shooting Mendez. The cameras are designed to record video without sound for the 90 seconds before an officer activates it, so there is silent footage from his perspective of the moment he shot Mendez. It captures Mendez standing against the wall in the moments after he first raised the gun. It is chaotic and quick, with his rifle strap swinging and blocking the second time Mendez raised his arm before he fell.

It’s not clear from the footage how long the officers interacted with Mendez before they shot him. 

About 50 seconds after officers shot Mendez, an officer fired a less-lethal round at him. It hit him, bouncing off. Urbatsch told the other officers that Mendez’s hands were still underneath him.

“He’s got that gun in his hands,” Goff said, agreeing.

Mendez moved his head slightly, prompting Goff to yell, “Do not pull that gun out!” An officer fired another Arwen round at him. Urbatsch then radioed for a K-9 unit while another officer went to get a shield. Goff said quietly that Mendez’s hands were still at his waist, where he had the gun, preventing the officers from treating him. In the distance, Mendez barely raised his head a few more times.

“Hey Joseph, you need to take your hands out,” Urbatsch yelled at Mendez, who was still lying by the wall. “We’ll give you some help.”

About four minutes after the shooting, a drone arrived. It flew over to Mendez and hovered near his face, its wings buzzing. Mendez did not move. “His eyes are closed now. He’s not breathing anymore,” Urbatsch said. Eventually, six officers walked slowly up to Mendez, one leading the way with a shield. 

Urbatsch’s body-cam footage shows them putting the shield down firmly on Mendez and crowding around him. Goff, who isn’t one of the six, approached after the other officers surrounded him. With Mendez still face down, the officers lifted him by his arms to move him away from the wall. Mendez’s head dropped limply to the ground and an officer called for a med-bag.

What’s next

Phoenix police officers have shot and killed six people this year, including three within a few days of each other in March. 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 “a reasonable opportunity to comply voluntarily.”

New Times identified Goff and Urbatsch through their body-cam footage, and the department confirmed their names and badge numbers. The department’s online use-of-force databases show that Goff was investigated for 20 use-of-force incidents between January 2018 and the end of last year. Seven of the subjects in those incidents were armed with guns and two had knives. Goff did not use his firearm in any of those cases. Whether or not he violated policy was not available for six of the incidents because the department did not track outcomes at the time. The department found that he violated policy once in May 2023 for use of force with hard empty-hand, such as punches or kicks. The suspect was unarmed.