The fatal shooting of a man in a car parked by Phoenix police officers over the weekend, captured on video in gruesome detail, is fueling a new round of protests against violent police tactics.
The video showed several uniformed officers surrounding a parked car while pointing their weapons at the man inside the vehicle. One of the officers yelled at the man, threatening to shoot him.
Then, in front of the witnesses who were recording the episode, the officers unleashed a volley of shots. The victim was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to a statement from the Phoenix Police Department.
The shooting in the city’s Maryvale neighborhood comes at a time when cities across the United States face anger over the deaths of African-Americans and Latinos at the hands of the police. Elsewhere in Arizona, Tucson police came under scrutiny in June for the murder, also captured on video, of Carlos Ingram López.
“We are not surprised that despite all the scrutiny from the Phoenix PD community, it continues to respond violently to calls,” said Carlos Garcia, a member of the Phoenix City Council, in a Facebook post about the episode. “We cannot allow dishonest narratives to be constructed by violent departments.”
Mr. Garcia, the board member, identified the victim as James Garcia. Protests over the murder erupted in Phoenix Sunday night, with dozens of protesters marching toward the Maryvale Estrella Mountain police compound. Some 30 officers with riot gear blocked access to the building during the protest, according to reports on social media.
The details surrounding the fatal shooting remain murky. The Police Department in its statement said officers were responding to a report of an aggravated assault called 911.
The department said the victim had a gun and pointed it at one of the officers before the police fatally shot him. But Steven Merry, a friend of the victim, told local media that the man was unarmed.
“They put the gun to his head like this and they still tell him not to move, to take his hand off a gun that he doesn’t have and then they shot him again,” Merry told KSAZ.
Activists are demanding the release of body camera footage from the episode, although it is not yet clear when that video might be available. Police departments in Arizona often take weeks or months to respond to such requests.
