ARIZ. LEADS NATION IN MARSHALS SHOOTINGS
Data: Mesa officers on US Marshals task forces have fired the most fatal shots since 2015
Arizona leads the nation in the number of people shot since 2015 by U.S. Marshals Service task forces. The squads, ● which arrest fugitives, use techniques some police chiefs criticize as outdated and dangerous. ● While the task forces in Arizona include federal agents and officers from several local police agencies, Mesa officers shot more than half of the 11 who were killed, including a young bystander, according to an investigation by The Arizona Republic in partnership with The Marshall Project. ● In Arizona, where officers’ use of deadly force has been closely examined, the marshals’ shootings largely have gone unnoticed. But they reflect a broader theme of the state’s use of deadly force: Officers can shoot someone and expect not to get criminally charged.
Since 2011, there have been more than 700 law-enforcement shootings in Arizona. Prosecutors have charged two officers — one of whom was acquitted by a jury of second-degree murder, and one who had an aggravated assault charge dismissed by a judge.
“If I were an officer in Arizona, I could be pretty well assured that my conduct is not going to be held accountable, at least not held criminally responsible,” said Kami Chavis, a law professor at Wake Forest University and former assistant U.S. attorney.
“When you don’t have that kind of accountability, other officers are not going to be deterred from even endangering other members of the public. And that’s just irresponsible.”
At least five U.S. police departments, including Tucson, have cut ties with the marshals since 2017. The federal agency is not transparent, some local officials say. It condones dangerous tactics such as shooting into vehicles; marshals do not wear body cameras. They are also often uncommunicative with local authorities investigating their use of lethal force.
Yet these task forces operate with little of the public scrutiny local police departments face, even after repeated congressional investigations and years of criticism from the U.S. Justice Department, police chiefs and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which has reviewed these shootings in Arizona.
The U.S. Marshals Service frequently deputizes local law enforcement officers as federal agents, known as task force officers, who work on teams that serve arrest warrants.
Lola N’sangou, executive director of Mass Liberation Arizona, a Phoenixbased advocacy group, expressed concern about the shootings. “That’s disturbing,” she said. “I’m surprised at how these shootings go under the radar, at how many ways they can be killing us, right under our noses.”
11 people killed, 1 injured in Arizona since 2015
The Marshall Project, a national nonprofit journalism organization, and The Arizona Republic compiled data on U.S. Marshals Service-involved shootings from Jan. 1, 2015, to Sept. 10, 2020.
The data shows that 177 people were shot — 124 fatally — by a marshal, task force member or local officer assisting in a U.S. Marshals Service arrest. In the same time frame, five deputy marshals and task force officers have been killed and 21 injured, according to The Marshall Project investigation.
On average, marshals and their task force members shoot about 31 people annually in the United States.
By comparison, the Phoenix Police Department, one of the country’s largest municipal police departments that also has one of the highest shooting rates in the nation, shoots 25 people, on average, each year.
In Arizona, there have been 10 marshal-involved shootings since January 2015: 11 people were killed, and one person was injured. Four other people killed themselves as task force officers tried to apprehend them. In a separate case, a suspect shot and killed a deputy marshal in Tucson.
Nearly all the bullets were fired by Maricopa County task force officers: four Mesa police officers, four Glendale police officers, two Chandler police officers, one Tempe police officer, one Pinal County deputy and one U.S. marshal. In two cases, The Republic could not confirm the names or departments for the officers.
The data shows that Mesa officers were involved in six of the 11 deaths. James Pollard and Hoapili Baker were involved in two encounters that each led to the death of two people in the six-year span. Michael Pezzelle was involved in one of those fatal encounters in which two people died. Andrew Walag was involved in one fatal shooting. In another fatal shooting, records were unclear which Mesa officer fired.
The people killed in Arizona include men wanted on charges related to DUI; drug possession; theft; assault; probation violations; leaving the scene of a fatal accident; and, in two cases, murder.
And one girl who happened to be in a car with a suspect died from a marshals’ task force bullet: Sariah Lane, a 17-yearold high school student who was fatally shot in the back of her head by Pezzelle, according to police reports.
Pezzelle retired in 2018. He left the department after five shootings, with five fatalities and two people injured in his 15-year career, making him one of the most frequent users of police lethal force in Arizona in the past decade.
Pezzelle’s number of shootings tied his Mesa Police Department colleague Pollard. Nearly all of Pezzelle and Pollard’s shootings came while working as task-force officers, the last one being the shooting that killed Lane. Both were approved by the city for accidental disability retirement.
Andre Miller, a pastor in Mesa who for years has criticized the Mesa Police Department for its use-of-force cases, said “it’s jarring” to learn about The Republic and The Marshall Project’s findings.
He said Mesa leadership needs to rethink the wisdom of allowing Mesa officers to join marshal task forces.
“There is a cultural problem in policing. It doesn’t matter if you go from the federal side, the state side or the municipal side,” he said. “There is a pervasive culture of violence that allows officers the mindset to take lives with impunity.”
In response to public demand, police departments have implemented incremental changes that police chiefs say will increase transparency or reduce police violence.
For example, Phoenix police have banned strangleholds and shooting into moving vehicles. Mesa police last year banned its officers from shooting at vehicles. Tucson police have started notifying the public of arrest-related deaths. All three police departments have most of their officers wear body cameras.
In contrast, the U.S. Marshals Service, which operates under the U.S. Department of Justice, still allows shooting at vehicles, and its agents do not wear body cameras. After criticism from police chiefs, the DOJ allowed local officers working on task forces to wear body cameras. But this change in policy was not extended to marshals.
Federal officials defend the U.S. Marshals Service policies. Some local police leaders said officers on task forces are keeping people safe from those one commander described as “the worst of the worst.”
Suspects with a variety of backgrounds
The U.S. Marshals Service said it creates task forces to help local police pursue dangerous criminals to help reduce crime.
Christopher Race, 36, was shot and killed by task force members in Mesa in March 2018. He had been sought in connection to the fatal stabbing of 30-yearold Lindsey Eastridge, who had been killed as she was getting her nails done.
Pedro Lucero, 42, was shot and killed on the Salt River Reservation in August 2018. He was wanted in connection with a New Mexico homicide.
But in some cases, task forces in Arizona have pursued run-of-the-mill suspects.
Stephen Hudak, 44, was killed in March 2018; he injured a Glendale police officer during a shootout. Hudak was killed by a Phoenix police officer. Court records show he had past convictions on theft, drug, burglary and tampering with evidence charges. Three Glendale officers were involved in the shooting.
Craig Allen, 71, was wanted on a probation
violation in connection with his conviction of mail fraud. In November 2018, he was killed by a marshal after officers said Allen had pointed a weapon at an officer.
Jason Lara Godinez, 40, killed himself in August 2019 when a task force tried to arrest him on a warrant related to a charge of possessing a weapon even though he was prohibited because of a felony conviction. Before that charge, he had been convicted of possessing marijuana, trespassing, DUI and forgery.
‘The feds take a long time to change and adapt and move’
Marshals serve in a variety of law-enforcement roles — from protecting federal courthouses to arresting wanted people — but generally keep a low public profile unless something goes wrong.
At the end of 2020, there were about 3,600 marshals across the country, with another 2,400 local officers who helped make up about 64 task forces, serving thousands of warrants a year.
There are an estimated 85 marshals in Arizona, but it’s unclear how many task force members are in the state.
David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona, said in a statement his office is “committed to fostering safer communities and working with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to reduce violent crime.”
“While our jobs in law enforcement are inherently dangerous, our No. 1 priority is the safety of those we have sworn to protect,” he said. “No law enforcement agency wants to see a person injured or killed during an enforcement operation or arrest, especially an innocent bystander. We will continue to work with community leaders and our law enforcement partners to reduce crime and make our neighborhoods safer for our children.”
Mesa police Cmdr. Ed Wessing said the task forces are focused on apprehending “the worst of the worst.” Without them, he said, patrol officers and the public would be put in more danger.
Mesa police remain a partner with the U.S. Marshals Service, according to the department.
Spokesman Nik Rasheta said, “We are committed to working together with personnel from the U.S. Marshals Service and dedicated detectives from multiple other local law enforcement organizations which comprise the Task Force.
“Mesa Police personnel are supervised by MPD leadership and their operational tactics are governed by Mesa PD policy. “
But not all municipal police departments that have worked with the marshals feel this way.
Nearly two years after Ryan P. Schlesinger killed Deputy U.S. Marshal Chase White during a shootout in 2018, Tucson police cut ties with the marshals.
“That started us down this road of, ‘OK, we are just too nervous with what they are doing and with our folks involved,’ ” said Kevin Hall, Tucson Police Department assistant chief.
Hall said as police departments have had to adapt to public demands of transparency and accountability, federal agencies have not.
“I am not picking on just the marshals. It’s the feds. The feds take a long time to change and adapt and move. Where municipal agencies don’t have that luxury, they are accountable to the community, where the feds are not,” Hall said.
Silence frustrates county prosecutor
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which reviews each law enforcement shooting for any potential criminal charges, also criticized the U.S. Marshals Service for its lack of transparency.
In an April 2013 shooting, Deputy U.S. Marshal Justin Davis and five officers from Mesa and Chandler police fired 75 rounds, killing 33-year-old Travis Trisoliere. Four Mesa officers and one Chandler police officer agreed to be interviewed during a walk-through of the scene for the criminal investigation into the shooting.
Davis, who fired 25 rounds from his Springfield Armory 1911 handgun, would not give a statement.
His refusal to participate “has resulted in an increased level of scrutiny into the other evidence of his actions in this case,” says a letter dated April 2014 sent to Davis’ attorney from Keith Manning, the county attorney’s former law enforcement liaison.
“His decision to refuse to explain his conduct has exposed his career to review by the MCAO Officer Integrity Committee. Finally, this decision to fail to justify all rounds discharged by your client exposes him and the U.S. Marshals Service to increased potential civil liability.”
‘I would never wish this pain on anyone’
Of all the marshal shootings in Arizona, one stands out: the April 2017 killing of Lane, a high school girl, in Glendale by task force member Pezzelle.
The target was Brandon Pequeño, 25, who police described as dangerous because of his suspected gang ties. He was wanted by police for violating probation. A search of his court records in Maricopa County Superior Court shows he previously was convicted of aggravated DUI, theft and drug possession. A probation officer told Pezzelle that Pequeño had beaten his girlfriend.
“Our No. 1 priority is the safety of those we have sworn to protect. No law enforcement agency wants to see a person injured or killed during an enforcement operation or arrest, especially an innocent bystander.”
David Gonzales U.S. marshal for Arizona
The case is the subject of a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Phoenix.
The task force, which included 13 officers at the scene, had boxed in Pequeño’s Toyota Corolla with the marshals’ unmarked vehicles. No one in the Corolla was armed with a gun, even though Pezzelle later told investigators he thought Pequeño was about to shoot at the officers.
“That’s when I fire the rounds when I believe he’s going to start shooting at the detectives,” Pezzelle said.
Lane barely knew Pequeño. She dated one of his friends and happened to be in the car that Pezzelle shot into, said Naomi JoAnn Peña, her younger sister.
“All I ever feel now is anger because it took them seconds to alter people’s entire lives. Literally, seconds to destroy a family,” Peña said. “I would never wish this pain on anyone.”
Pezzelle and his lawyer declined to be interviewed. But in court filings, lawyers for the task force members said they “used only reasonable and necessary force,” and in any event were entitled to qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects government workers doing their jobs. No trial date has been set.
‘Have a plan to kill everyone you meet’
Pezzelle had a history of using force, according to the Mesa department’s early intervention software that alerts when an officer has hit a certain number of incidents.
The department declined to say whether Pezzelle ever was disciplined
while on the job. However, Mesa police rarely face consequences for using excessive force. A 2018 investigation by The Republic found that 2% of 158 internal investigations into excessive-force claims were substantiated by Mesa police over a five-year period.
Pezzelle became an officer in 2003 and retired in 2018 with a $62,220 annual pension. He now heads a law enforcement consulting company, Five Eight Group, which teaches officers across the country the deadly tactics he used as a task force officer.
Until reporters with The Republic and The Marshall Project inquired, a company social media account boasted about his shooting record.
In a promotional video on the company’s Facebook profile, Pezzelle said he likes to teach law enforcement “how to deal with bad guys who are going to flee.” In an Instagram post, Pezzelle described his training philosophy as: “Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”
Among the material, he has taught include lessons titled: “Treat every contact as though your grandma was the victim” and “The law is in our favor and exists to protect us,” according to a syllabus for his Armed Career Criminal class taught at the Pinal County Sheriff ’s Office in September 2018.
During his time as an officer and after, Pezzelle would use Instagram to share his thoughts on policing and the people he arrested.
In September 2018, he posted pictures of a man with a bloodied face, blood splatter on a sidewalk and a truck with a dented hood. The caption says: “Some people are allergic to gluten. Some people are allergic to trucks. Pull a gun when the police are trying to arrest you for a violent crime but please expect the consequences.”
Sy Ray, owner of ZetX, the Arizonabased consulting firm that retains Pezzelle as a “Tac Ops Trainer,” defended Pezzelle, saying that all he does is teach how to keep officers safe.
“I will tell you my perspective is he is a great guy,” wrote Ray in an email. “On the other hand, if I brutally killed someone, had a warrant for my arrest, and didn’t want to be held responsible for my actions – I would not like him, not one bit.”
Police ‘the only people to blame’
Lane was going to high school and worked as a cashier at a QuikTrip convenience store. When she would get paid, Lane would save her money, said Peña, her sister. She said they had plans to move out together when Lane turned 18.
The two would spend time together listening to music, watching movies, going to the mall and window shopping, Peña said. When Peña would feel sad, she would turn to Lane for comfort and support.
“After she died, it’s never been the same. I don’t think I will ever find a friend like that again,” Peña said. “I told my husband this, ‘When she died that night, I feel like a part of me died as well.’ I don’t have that person I can talk to, or just laugh with or listen to music with.”
Peña said Lane’s boyfriend took her to hang out with Pequeño on the day of the shooting.
She said sometimes she blames the boyfriend for introducing Lane to someone wanted by police. Still, she said, she is being unreasonable and knows the boyfriend did nothing wrong.
“The only people to blame is our police who are supposed to protect us,” Lane said.