Prison time, mental illness, drugs all commonalities in Phoenix police shootings

• Phoenix had 44 police shootings in 2018, more than the larger NYPD, LAPD
• Nearly one-third of people shot at by Phoenix police have been incarcerated in an Arizona prison
• Issues around mental illness and drug use contributed significantly to the spike in shootings
• Police say they're looking for solutions, though experts say answers might be anything but easy

The year of the police shooting started with two shots in the back. 

On a cloudy morning 10 days into 2018, Phoenix police radios crackle with reports of hit-and-run wrecks and an errant produce truck near 48th Street and Broadway Road. The driver, 31-year-old Isadore Deshon Byrd, jumps from a wrecked box truck and holes up in a good Samaritan's GMC pickup parked nearby.  

Body-worn camera footage shows Officer David Dehority and others with Phoenix police screaming orders at Byrd for more than six minutes as he fidgets around the driver's seat. 

"Out of the car!" they shout. "Put your hands up!"

"He may be getting ready to run," Dehority says. "Got a stun-bag?"

In an instant, the door swings open.

Byrd steps out, and a BB gun in his right hand raises toward Dehority.

Pop goes the officer's gun.

Byrd makes a 180-degree turn and runs — apparently raising the gun behind him and giving cause to shoot, according to police. 

Pop. Pop it goes again. 

Byrd hits the asphalt as officers run toward him with their guns drawn. One asks where he was hit. The other steps on Byrd's outstretched arm. They lift the man's black-checkered hoodie, examine his stomach and find no signs of blood. An officer checks Byrd's pockets before even seeing where he was hit. 

They see the answer when they roll him onto his side: twice in the back, where blood soaks through his sweatshirt. 

"He was angry at that time," investigators who reviewed the shooting said of the suspect. "Byrd said he was having problems in a relationship and did not want to live anymore. He purposely pointed the BB gun at the officer, and he was shot. Byrd admitted he was high on methamphetamine and was drinking." 

That quote, from a nearly 100-page police report, captures some of the broad themes from the 44 Phoenix police shootings this year — a number that shattered records, generated national attention and spurred an outside review.

Phoenix police officials blame the surge on increasingly violent people in the city.

MORE: Group issues travel warning in midst of record-breaking year of police shootings

Activists have called cops trigger-happy and demand investment in communities.

An analysis by The Arizona Republic shows prison history, mental illness and recent drug use were commonalities in Phoenix's soaring number of shootings.

Those factors are consistent with research looking into police shootings nationally, said Michael White, a professor and policing researcher in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. But that alone can't explain why Phoenix police fired more times than any other agency its size in the United States, prompting outside investigations, he said.

“I think the police have gotten much better, rather than worse, in dealing with those things," White said, referring to improved police interactions with community members. 

"That makes me think that there's something unique going on here." 

44 shootings tops major U.S. cities

Phoenix, the country's fifth most-populous city, has had 44 police shootings so far in 2018, more than any of the country's four largest cities.

The New York City Police Department, the largest in the country, covering a city of 8.5 million, had 13 police shootings through November, a spokesman told The Republic. As of Dec. 10, Los Angeles and Chicago had 31 shootings, and Houston had 16.

Phoenix's total is significantly higher than the combined tally of 30 from the three most-similarly populated cities, Philadelphia, San Antonio and San Diego. They have recorded 12, 12 and six, respectively, The Republic found. 

Phoenix police were involved in 21 shootings in 2017.

Facing public backlash and demands for information, Phoenix in November launched an online data page that catalogs its police shootings. 

Among the key takeaways as of Dec. 28:

• 22 people were killed by police gunfire.
• 36 of the 44 shootings this year involved suspects with guns, either real or replicas.
• 32 shootings involved white subjects, nine involved black subjects, and three involved Native Americans.
• 17 people shot by police were more than 40 years old this year, compared with three last year.
• 68 officers fired their weapon, more than double the 29 who fired in 2017.

Officials said the aggregate data and information was in the name of transparency — a common refrain from Chief Jeri Williams and demand from community activists that has been met with resistance. 

Other agencies publish police shooting narrative details, as in Philadelphia, and video footage, as in Los Angeles. Phoenix has not announced plans to do anything similar, despite driving Maricopa County's shooting tally to 81 this year, also a record.

Of the shootings it has reviewed so far countywide, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office has deemed each of this year's shootings justified.

No officers have been criminally charged.

Prison history helps explain the story

Nearly one in three police shootings in Phoenix — at least 12 this year — involved suspects who had spent time in an Arizona prison, The Republic's analysis of shooting investigations, court documents and prison records found. 

The total number of previously incarcerated suspects could be higher. It is difficult to determine if any of the suspects spent time in other prisons across the United States because no all-encompassing easily searchable database exists that reliably captures such information.

Some of those convicted, incarcerated, released and later shot by Phoenix police officers were involved in drug or drug-related crimes decades ago. Others served time for more violent offenses.

The amount of time out of prison varied from decades to days. 

Steven Patrick Scheuer, 49, was released from the Arizona Department of Corrections on March 19 after serving nine years for aggravated DUI, prison records show.

When he got out, he built a shed in his older sister's backyard and called it home. 

Seven weeks later, on May 6, Scheuer's sister called police to report her brother had been having drug-induced hallucinations, "acting strangely" and was walking around the neighborhood with a knife, according to police reports. She wasn't sure what drug he was using, but he was talking about construction lumber being in the trees and machines underneath them. She said it was like how he acted 20 years earlier after using methamphetamine. 

The first call ended amicably.

But officers were called again that night about an erratic Scheuer armed with a knife and wandering the streets near 43rd and Missouri avenues. On the way there, officers talked about how they could detain him and get him a mental-health evaluation. 

When they arrived, Scheuer was holding a staple gun. 

He walked toward officers, who demanded he drop it. Scheuer obeyed, but then he pulled out a knife about 6 feet from the officers, raised it above his head and walked toward them, according to police reports.

One officer pushed him back before retreating to a palm tree for cover. 

Scheuer continued toward them and, two shots later, he fell to the ground. 

After a scuffle, officers arrested Scheuer on suspicion of aggravated assault. Assault charges have been filed, and he is slated to stand trial in January. A prison sentence is likely. 

MORE: Activists decry Phoenix police shootings as 'epidemic of violence'

In other cases with previously incarcerated people, the dynamics ranged from defined mental-health crises with those who never fully fit into society, to some who seemed borderline successful before falling back on criminality. 

Andres Arteaga, 28, spent three years in the Arizona Department of Corrections for, among other reasons, fleeing a traffic stop and fighting with police. 

Arteaga, who was released in October 2017, missed an August court date. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest, and plainclothed officers found him two days later near 15th and Southern avenues in Phoenix. After a foot chase through the neighborhood and a flubbed stun-gun attempt to subdue him, officers fatally shot Arteaga as he reached for a gun.

Before he went to prison in 2014, investigators wrote to the court that Arteaga had a history of drug use and wanted treatment. Childhood abuse, parents who were incarcerated and drugs contributed to his delinquency, investigators said. 

His younger sister wrote on Facebook that she often felt like an older sibling. They weren't especially close after he was released from prison. But she took solace in knowing that he cared for her — sentiment captured in a voicemail from him that she posted on Facebook after his death.

"Hello, sister. I just want to wish you a happy birthday," Arteaga said in the recording. "I love you with all my heart."

Mental illness, substance abuse and guns play roles

Mental illnesses — specifically suicidal thoughts or statements — were part of at least one in five of the shootings, based on Phoenix police reports that have been released for 2018 shootings and reviewed by The Republic. It's likely a much more prominent and far-reaching factor that simply isn't captured in official documents. 

Crises that ended in police shootings sometimes coincided with the most grisly crime scenes this year. 

In February, Edward Hallinan was the focus of one of them.

The 39-year-old Phoenix man had been using methamphetamine and cocaine, believed people were trying to kill him, and made comments about "wanting to delete himself," records show. 

His mother grew concerned he was developing a mental illness. On Feb. 20, she called a crisis hotline, and workers conducted a home-visit evaluation, ultimately recommending he get a neurological evaluation.

He seemed responsive, but that quickly changed. 

The next day, Hallinan armed himself with an MP-15 rifle, fatally shot three people whose bodies were found in an adjacent yard and holed up in a nearby pickup truck. 

After a standoff with officers, Hallinan fired two shots and police returned fire.

His body was pulled from the pickup and the Maricopa County Medical Examiner determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. 

It was one extreme case in which someone's mental health was called into question before mayhem unfolded — and where the systems that existed failed to prevent violence.

Estimates about the prevalence of so-called "suicide-by-cop" vary widely. Some researchers say it explains about 10 percent of police shootings, while others cite it as a factor in about one-third of cases. 

Records released thus far about Phoenix's shootings point toward the latter. 

Phoenix police officers in March were investigating an argument near 59th Avenue and Osborn Road and got into a "running gunbattle." David Gardea, 27, smoked marijuana and drank a pint of vodka before telling his girlfriend "I love you" as the cops arrived and the shooting commenced. She later said he confided in her that he planned to "take himself out" if the police ever came for him again. 

In April, a transgender woman who was transitioning from male to female made suicidal statements and "wanted to end it," according to police reports. After shooting a gun inside her home, prompting a police response, 44-year-old Alexis Stinson shot at responding officers who returned fire, killing her. She, too, had made previous statements of self-harm. 

One of the most controversial police shootings this year played out over 24 hours.

Alexandre J. Aldrich barricaded himself in a motel room in June and threatened to burn the place down. He claimed to be a federal investigator and hallucinated that he was surrounded by 20 people inside the room. Aldrich had a previously diagnosed mental illness, but family members said he had refused to get treatment. 

Officers were called and left without incident, but they were called back the next day. While handcuffing 34-year-old Aldrich on suspicion of trespassing, the man pulled away and began to swing the arm with the cuff toward an officer. A fight followed in which an officer punched him and deployed the stun gun with "little to no effect," according to police reports. 

With one handcuff on his wrist and the other hanging open, Aldrich kicked free and turned toward the officer. Concerned that the open handcuff could cut his throat, the officer fatally shot Aldrich. His body-worn camera fell off during the scuffle, according to police. 

Elected officials have taken note of residents' demands for a greater emphasis on, and communication about, mental-health training among police officers.

City Council members in a December meeting called for a report detailing officer training on mental health, from new recruits going through the police academy to officers participating in new training modules.

Williams said the topic was top of mind as an increasing number of calls, including those that do not end in violence, involve people with mental illness who might also be using drugs. She has lauded crisis intervention training her new officers receive and said she is working on a program to get mental-health experts more involved in dispatching and responding to emergency calls. 

“The mental-health issue isn’t lost on us at all," Williams told the council. "We’re working hard to bridge those gaps in the system.”

Especially violent cases increase, too

Joel Carson walked into a Phoenix Circle K on May 9 ready to kill and be killed.  

The 53-year-old man with a lengthy rap sheet of felony convictions spent the previous night smoking crack cocaine and stabbing his neighbor, police reports show.

With the gun he stole from his wounded neighbor, Carson walked into a Circle K near 18th Avenue and Grant Street and went to the checkout line. There, he stood behind a stranger, raised a gun to the back of the stranger's head, and pulled the trigger.

The man crumpled, and Carson turned to the shoppers who ducked for cover. 

"This is not a game. This is not a joke," Carson announced, according to police reports. "I don't want no money, don't want no beer. I came prepared to die!" 

He pointed the gun at patrons and pulled the trigger.

But nothing happened.

Customers seized the moment and tackled Carson. Snipers set up outside fired through the glass, hitting him before taking him into custody on suspicion of multiple counts of assault and a single count of murder.

Investigators in their reports painted a picture of a homicidal man on a mission to kill. They captured his cold demeanor. 

"I told Joel the victim from Circle K had a wife and kids," an officer wrote. "I asked him what he would say to them if given the chance, and he replied, 'He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.'" 

Investigators examined the handgun and found eight remaining bullets. Each had been hit by the firing pin, but the bullets didn't go off because the cylinder was out of alignment. 

If not for that malfunction, Phoenix could have had a mass shooting this year. 

It's cases like these that law enforcement officials have used to explain the surge in police shootings this year. Some members of the public, officials have said, have been increasingly violent toward spouses, neighbors, strangers and officers. 

Those people have stolen cars at gunpoint. They have been wanted for murder.  

In one case, a man allegedly crept to within 10 feet behind an officer, aimed a gun at his head and said "freeze, motherf****r." The officer spun, fired and took the man into custody.

The spike in police shootings coincides with a recent uptick in violent crime in metro Phoenix, FBI data show. Year over year, the rate of violent crime per 100,000 Phoenix residents jumped to 761 in 2017 from 674 in 2016. That reverses years of downward trends but isn't a significant departure from other major cities. 

Williams, though she has cited a surge in assault on officers, pushed back against claims that Phoenix residents are inherently more aggressive in a radio interview earlier this month.

"We're not uniquely violent," she said.

What is the department doing about it?

Police shootings are among the most polarizing events in law enforcement.

They also generally face the most significant scrutiny, compared with the thousands of other police encounters every month, more than 99 percent of which do not end in violence. The reams of paperwork are voluminous, from internal reviews to determine if the shooting was within policy to criminal homicide inquiries and findings presented to county prosecutors. 

Despite the reinforced web of checks and balances, every case in which a review has been completed this year in Phoenix has ended the same way: within policy and without criminal charges. 

Not captured in the data, and perhaps impossible to capture in Phoenix police's backlogged records system, is the number of times an officer peacefully resolves standoffs with those in crisis — including in cases in which a police shooting technically might be deemed justified.

Williams has come out hard against critics who say her officers have acted aggressively and are unnecessarily escalating already volatile encounters. She also cited an increase in assaults on officers as an equally — if not more — troubling aspect this year.

"While I cannot account for the reasons why some members of our community take active aggression against officers, I can encourage and create opportunities for additional training," Williams wrote in a statement to the community in August. "The safety of our community and officers is the foundation of this department." 

It is unknown how many suspects in police shootings have been formally charged with assaulting officers, and how that number compares with past years. The Republic filed a records request for the data in early October, but the County Attorney's Office has not provided the information. Some of the spike in reported assaults on officers could stem from changes in reporting practices. 

A police department spokesman in late November said Williams had no time available to accommodate a follow-up interview with The Republic, as she was focused on police shootings and addressing 2019 priorities. 

She was "booked up the few days remaining this year," he said Nov. 29. 

The spokesman referred a reporter to "numerous interviews" Williams provided through the year addressing the spike in shootings. Her most recent at the time was in August, after Officer Adrian Cruz, 27, was shot and wounded during a north Phoenix traffic stop. 

“This is happening all over the city," Williams said in that interview. "This is happening with different ethnicities and genders. This is happening with different types of weapons and firearms, and you name it. So there’s not one thing. It’s an alarming trend.”

Two weeks after reportedly being "booked up," Williams responded in radio and television interviews to a New York Times article on Phoenix police violence.

Williams has addressed the uses of force more subtly at Phoenix City Council meetings, usually before the council authorizing the department's purchase of thousands of dollars in equipment. 

MORE: New York Times article 'misrepresents' shootings, Phoenix police chief says

She has generally opted not to offer input about what might be behind the unusual year and leaned on a  $149,000 council-approved, taxpayer-funded study. The National Police Foundation has been meeting with department personnel and collecting reports to suss out what trends exist that the department might have missed.

Preliminary findings from that investigation were planned by the end of the year, although that report has been delayed until early 2019.

White, the researcher, said shootings and police encounters more broadly should be viewed like a chess match. Likening interactions that might end in shootings to a match where each player makes and anticipates moves, he said, can lead to a deeper understanding of what might be done differently to change the outcome.

"It gets away from looking at, 'Was the person armed at the time he or she got shot?’ to a broader focus," he said. "What decisions did the officer make and the citizen make throughout the encounter that either increased or decreased the likelihood that deadly force was going to have to be used?"

Community protests, offers ideas for change 

Viridiana Hernandez, executive director of neighborhood activist group Poder in Action, has led an effort against police violence and city leaders she says are complicit in the shooting surge. 

Hernandez and others have called for a halt in increased police funding.

Instead of giving police new guns, technology and equipment, the group wants to see a greater investment in their communities — places where people fear the police and have a dearth of resources, primarily for drug and mental-health treatment. 

“It’s the lack of mental-health resources, the lack of economic opportunities, the lack of basic necessities to live," Hernandez told The Republic. "For us, all of those are factors for what lead people to a moment of crisis.” 

Protesters took over public comment portions of City Council meetings, including an especially boisterous one Dec. 5 that the mayor quickly shut down. The group has protested at council chambers in recent months and unfurled banners from freeway overpasses and a downtown parking garage decrying the shootings.

The most significant spike in shootings happened in Phoenix City Council District 4, spanning the central and western parts of the city represented by Laura Pastor. Twelve shootings happened there in 2018, compared with two in 2017.

Through a spokesman, Pastor acknowledged the increase in shootings in her district but called attention to the citywide surge. 

"She is committed to identifying and dedicating existing and new resources to address this issue where available," the spokesman said. 

District 5, which includes parts of western Phoenix represented by Councilwoman Vania Guevara, also saw a sharp uptick, with six police shootings in 2018 where there were none the year prior. Guevara said the focus in 2019 needs to be finding groups that are doing ground-up community work, revitalizing west Phoenix neighborhoods and re-engaging the community. 

"I think it’s more of a holistic approach that we need to take on and talk about what safety looks like," she told The Republic. "We all need to be at the table."

Seeking a solution, Hernandez pointed to a recent move by elected leaders in Minneapolis to siphon more than $1 million from the police department's budget and instead fund broader public-safety efforts. The effort, which did not subtract from the number of sworn personnel, was aimed at paying for youth outreach, conduct review and a program that pairs officers with mental-health professionals.

Hernandez and law enforcement actually have that concern in common. They're both critical of police being expected to handle all of society's most volatile emergencies, from people acting violently to people experiencing a crisis. 

Using police and incarceration as the only solution unfairly and dangerously expands their role, Hernandez said. And through time, policing has been seen as the only answer for safety. 

"For us," she said, "these are all social issues. These are not public-safety issues. They’re public health issues.”

New normal?

Officials hope the past 12 months were not the start of a new normal.

Data trends suggest those hopes might be realized.

The six-month stretch from March to August saw the vast majority — 76 percent — of the year's police shootings, records show. Law enforcement experts have said the increase in those months is typical each year. 

Williams has stopped short of saying that any single departmental change caused the number of shootings to slow in the final weeks of 2018.

Time will tell, she said, whether this was simply an "anomaly year." 

Outside researchers are probing what other sociological factors might be steering people toward situations that end in police shootings, and efforts are ongoing to see what, if anything, needs to change inside the department. 

Meanwhile, Byrd, whose case started the year that came to be defined by police shootings, remains in a Maricopa County jail cell.

Byrd has an eighth-grade education and was hearing voices Jan. 10 when he crashed a truck and engaged in a standoff with police. He was experiencing a bout of paranoia from what his attorney in court papers said is an "undiagnosed mental illness."

Shot twice in the back, Byrd was rushed to a hospital where doctors performed surgery and kept him alive.

He'll face a judge and jury in a trial scheduled for Jan. 22. 

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8515, jpohl@azcentral.com or on Twitter: @pohl_jason.

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