Phoenix police have killed 6 people in 2026 so far

Phoenix police officers have killed six people so far in 2026, including a man who was protecting his family and restraining an armed intruder until police came. That’s more than half the number of people killed by the department in 2025.

Three of the shootings took place during a five-day period in mid-March. A seventh person also died during an encounter with police after he accidentally shot himself when officers tackled him.

Last year, Phoenix police officers killed 11 people. Six were killed in a nearly two-month stretch, prompting outrage and criticism from activists who’d hoped the department had turned a new leaf after killing 14 people in 2024, an increase from 12 in 2023 and 10 in 2022. That late-summer run of shootings coincided with the hiring of new Police Chief Matt Giordano, who replaced interim chief Michael Sullivan. 

Sullivan helmed the department as it dealt with a Department of Justice investigation that resulted in a blistering June 2024 report on Phoenix police. The report found that Phoenix cops regularly committed civil rights violations, including discriminating against people of color, using excessive and unnecessarily deadly force and arresting unhoused people without cause.

Here are all the people who have been killed by Phoenix police officers this year, along with the circumstances of their deaths. Where applicable, click the name of each person for more details on their killings.

Officers shot and killed Piekarz in the early morning of March 12 in north Phoenix. Police were called to a north Phoenix neighborhood after reports of a man with a gun in the street. They found Piekarz, shirtless and holding a gun. According to body camera footage, officer Jonathan Gay shot Piekarz after the 22-year-old continued advancing with a gun toward the officer and ignored commands to drop the gun. Gay then shot Piekarz again after he raised the gun with his right arm. Piekarz fell on top of his gun. Gay’s body camera captured video but no audio of the encounter because he forgot to turn it on until after he shot Piekarz. The other officer’s body camera footage has not been released. DPS’s Major Incidents Division is investigating the shooting and the Phoenix Police Department is also conducting an internal investigation. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will determine whether or not to bring criminal charges.

Phoenix officers shot and killed Arrieta in west Phoenix on March 13. Four officers were responding to a domestic violence call in an apartment complex near 3500 West Osborn and found Arrieta running through the complex with a rifle. Body camera footage shows them chasing Arrieta through the complex and him refusing commands to drop the rifle. Two of the four officers, Ricky Christensen and Adrian Samaniego, shot him. The officers then disarmed him by taking away the rifle that was strapped to his chest and performed CPR for about six minutes until the fire department arrived. DPS’s Major Incidents Division is investigating the shooting and the Phoenix Police Department is also conducting an internal investigation. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will determine whether or not to bring criminal charges.

Phoenix officer Thomas Patterson shot and killed Schmidt while he was barricaded in his townhome at 43rd Avenue and Medlock Drive early in the morning on March 15. According to 911 calls and body camera footage, officers responded to a report of a fight at the address and found a woman and a young girl locked on a patio behind a gate. Officers broke down the gate and freed them after the woman told them Schmidt had “cocked a gun.” An approximately two-hour-long stand-off followed, during which Schmidt barricaded himself in his home. He shot down a police drone, fired at a wall and fired twice out his window before Patterson shot him. The department said they sent two drones into the townhome and located him unresponsive in a bedroom upstairs. Body camera footage from an officer on the team sent in after the drones showed at least three handguns in the hallway and two long guns on the bed next to stuffed animals. They found Schmidt lying still near the window in the child’s room. Emergency calls released to New Times through a public records request show that Schmidt called his family multiple times during the standoff. DPS’s Major Incidents Division is investigating the shooting and the Phoenix Police Department is also conducting an internal investigation. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will determine whether or not to bring criminal charges.

Phoenix police officers Brent Urbatsch and Bryant Goff from the Special Assignments Unit shot and killed Mendez in an alley near Seventh Avenue and McDowell Road just after 10 a.m. on April 29. According to a police advisory, Mendez had felony warrants for assaulting a Tolleson police officer a few days earlier. Urbatsch, Goff and other officers had identified him and were trying to engage him when he got out of his car and walked away through an alley. Surveillance footage showed Mendez jogging out from behind a dumpster as a police vehicle pulled up. He then backed up quickly towards a wall while raising his arm as though pointing a gun. He raised his arm again, his back now fully against the wall, before he fell to the ground. Body-cam footage showed Urbatsch and Goff firing three live rounds in between. Officers waited for about five minutes to approach Mendez to render aid. Mendez, who was unmoving and limp in the body camera footage when officers approached him, was pronounced dead at the hospital. DPS’s Major Incidents Division is investigating the shooting and the Phoenix Police Department is also conducting an internal investigation. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will determine whether or not to bring criminal charges.