RALLY FOR JUSTICE
Officers shot man fatally in July Fourth incident
The Phoenix Police Department is under scrutiny again after the fatal shooting by officers of a 28-year-old man in west Phoenix on the Fourth of July.
A witness’ video footage depicting the killing was shared widely on social media over the weekend, leading to community protests.
On Monday, police, citing false claims on social media, released a 911 call that led to the confrontation and a 44-second body-camera footage of an officer who appears on the scene after the shooting.
James “Jay” Porter Garcia, who was inside a parked vehicle on a driveway of a friend’s house when he was shot by two police officers, was described by that friend’s mother as an “all-around good guy.”
Phoenix police have not yet identified the officers.
Regularly, police departments, including the one in Phoenix, don’t immediately release the names of officers and in most cases don’t release any footage until after prosecutors review the case, which can take several months up to a year.
The department did not specify what social media claims were false. A police spokesman said the department was not releasing the on-body camera footage that depicts the shooting until after the investigation is complete.
“The investigation into this shooting is still in the early stages,” said Sgt. Mercedes Fortune, Phoenix police spokeswoman, in a YouTube video published Monday and produced by the Police Department. “Releasing body-worn camera (BWC) footage from the officers directly involved before all witness and officer interviews are completed could compromise the investigation.”
The shooting of Garcia also comes at a time when police departments
across the country have been under intense scrutiny for the killings of Black and Latino people.
In Tucson, the April death of Carlos Adrian Ingram-Lopez prompted protests in June against the Police Department as details about his death became publicly known.
Since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, thousands of people in Phoenix and across the world have protested police violence against Black people.
In Phoenix, Garcia’s death prompted people to protest the Police Department on Sunday and Monday evening, demanding justice for Garcia’s family.
Advocates have protested the Police Department for years, decrying the high-rate of police shootings and the lack of access to basic information such as the police report, 911 calls and onbody camera footage for cases that were recorded.
“I think the political climate that we’re in regarding police shootings has made police departments, including the city of Phoenix, more willing to provide information on the onset of such a tragedy,” said Daniel Ortega, the lawyer representing Garcia’s family. “Whether that will continue or if they will do it in this situation will be remain to be seen.”
Ortega said Garcia’s mother was devastated.
“There’s no bigger shock that comes to a parent that their son or daughter has been fatally shot,” Ortega said.
On Tuesday, two state Democratic lawmakers demanded that Phoenix police release all body cam footage from the shooting.
Sen. Martin Quezada and Rep. Diego Rodriguez also asked the Police Department to publicly release any complaint history of the officers and any other previous shootings they’ve been involved in.
“Releasing the information which we are asking for will not negatively impact the internal investigation in any way, but it would go a long way in establishing a greater level of trust between the community and law enforcement,” Quezada said in a statement.
‘It sounded like a war had broken out’
Lisa Wagner said she was inside the home of where the shooting happened. Her 26-year-old son Shawn Hansen, who lives at the home, considered Garcia his best friend, she said.
Garcia arrived at the home earlier in the day to hang out with her son, she said. They were planning to go somewhere when Garcia waited in his car in the driveway while Hansen got ready, Wagner said.
My son is slower than Christmas,” Wagner said.
Wagner said she didn’t know police were outside the home until she heard gunshots.
“It sounded like a war had broken out in front of my house,” she said.
Wagner said she’s known Garcia for about two years, adding that her son’s known him longer. “He was very well mannered, very well-dressed, was pretty much an all-around good guy,” Wagner said.
She recalled a time when Garcia jumped on a chair during a barbecue when a mouse scurried across the patio.
“Jay was kind of scared of his own shadow at times,” she said. “I could’ve sworn Jay was gonna go right up through the roof and he squealed …”
Wagner said she still can’t believe what happened.
“I keep thinking it’s a bad dream and we’re going to wake up and we’re all going to laugh about this, but unfortunately I walk out to my driveway and I realize that it’s real,” she said. “Everyone kind of feels like they (police) murdered Jay.”
Griselda Alvarez said she met Garcia through a mutual friend two summers ago. She said he was “mellow” and “didn’t come off as a trouble maker or someone who would harm someone else.”
“He was loving, caring; if you needed something and he can do it, he would, don’t matter what time of day or night,” she said.
Alvarez said it’s hard to believe what happened.
“You hear about people getting shot and killed all the time by cops,” she said. “I never in a million years would think they would do that to someone I knew.”
Cellphone video shows confrontation
The video that has been circulating online is just over two minutes long, showing four officers surround a fourdoor beige vehicle on a driveway. A police vehicle is also in the driveway facing toward the vehicle Garcia is in.
“Put the gun down (expletive),” an onlooker yells at the police.
“Bro, don’t shoot him,” someone else is heard saying.
One of the officers yells into the vehicle, “Stop (expletive) moving, I will shoot you.”
The footage shows the moment one officer breaks a passenger side window. The camera then moves away when officers shoot into the vehicle, the footage shows.
Garcia’s head is rested on the window sill as officers keep yelling, pointing their weapons at him, the footage shows.
“He’s dead, what are you guys doing?” someone is heard yelling at the police.
Another person yells, “Give him an open casket at least.”
911 caller reports stabbing suspect
According to police, someone called 911 about 1 p.m. Saturday to report that a man who had tried to kill him a week before had returned, threatening to harm him.
The caller said he was hospitalized after the man stabbed him a week before.
Police arrived in the area of the 5600 block of West Glenrosa Ave., which is north of Indian School Road and west of 55th Avenue.
Officers talked to the 911 caller “who pointed out a specific home where he said the stabbing suspect was,” police said in a news release on Saturday.
Police talked to “several people including a man inside of the vehicle in the driveway,” said the spokeswoman, Mercedes, in the YouTube video.
“Officers talked to the man for approximately 10 minutes, asking him to leave his car so they could secure the scene. He refused and eventually rolled up the windows and pulled out a gun,” she said. “Officers ordered the man to drop the gun but he refused. The man repeatedly told officers to shoot him and lifted the gun toward officers. That’s when two officers fired their weapons.”
Police did not say if Garcia was the man the 911 caller had referred to.
Ortega, Garcia’s family lawyer, said he wants the Police Department to release the full-body camera footage of the officers who shot Garcia and the ones who were on the scene when it happened.
“The sooner the family can get answers as to what happened, the better for everyone,” he said.
He added that initial statements from the police don’t tell the whole picture.
In some cases, he said, police release selective information to justify the shooting. “It is not uncommon for the police or police departments to issue these statements to defend themselves as opposed to giving the facts about what happened,” Ortega said.
Phoenix Councilman Carlos Garcia had posted the cellphone video footage on his own Facebook profile on Sunday.
“It does not shock us that despite all the scrutiny from community Phoenix PD continues to respond violently to calls. But, we must all continue to ask for transparency and accountability,” Garcia wrote on Facebook.
“The department also issued a premature statement leaving out facts about the case. We cannot allow for dishonest narratives to be built by violent departments. we will continue to call for independent investigations into officerinvolved shootings.”
Poder in Action, an advocacy group based in Maryvale, a west Phoenix neighborhood where James Garcia’s killing happened, renewed their call to defund the Police Department. They want the City Council to take away funds from the Phoenix Police Department and invest them in social services that help reduce crime.
“The murder of Jay Garcia is another devastating example of the Phoenix Police Department’s inability to meet situations with any other tool but violence,” said Ben Laughlin, an organizer with the group.
Michael “Britt” London, the president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, also known as PLEA, the union that represents the police rankand-file, said Councilman Garcia’s comments are divisive.
“It is premature for Phoenix City Council member Carlos Garcia and other elected officials to jump to conclusions about the situation and make inflammatory comments about Phoenix police officers without all of the facts,”