An Arizona police chief has asked the FBI to conduct a civil rights review of an officer-involved shooting that led to the death of a 28-year-old man on the Fourth of July. Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams announced Tuesday that she requested the review after witness video of James "Jay" Porter Garcia’s death went viral. In the video viewed more than two million times, two officers can be heard firing about 10 times into a parked car Garcia was sitting in.
Police said in a news release Monday that officers fired because Garcia was armed and refused to get out of the vehicle or put his gun down. The victim’s family, however, has its doubts about officials’ version of what happened, and although authorities released body-cam video from an officer who wasn’t involved in the shooting, they refused to release body-cam footage from the actual officers who fired.
"The investigation into the shooting is still in the early phases," police spokeswoman Mercedes Fortune said in a YouTube video the department provided. "Releasing body-worn camera footage from the officers directly involved while all witnesses and officer interviews are completed would compromise the investigation."
Fortune said the department is releasing some footage and the 911 call in an effort to address “misinformation” that has surfaced on social media. In the video, she said officers were called to an area northeast of downtown Phoenix with a report that someone who had earlier stabbed a man was back in the area threatening him. "He trying to kill me again," the man could be heard telling officers in the 911 audio.
When police arrived, the 911 caller directed them to a house in the area and told them the man who stabbed him had a knife and another person had a gun. Officers questioned several people in the area including Garcia who was parked in the driveway of a nearby home.
“Officers talked to the man for approximately 10 minutes, asking him to leave his car so they could secure the scene,” Fortune said. “He refused and eventually rolled up the windows and pulled out a gun. 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.”
Lisa Wagner, the mother of Garcia's best friend, told The Arizona Republic Garcia was waiting outside her home to hang out with her 26-year-old son Shawn Hansen; but when Hansen wasn't ready, Garcia waited in the driveway. Wagner told the newspaper she didn’t realize police were outside of her home until gunshots were fired. “It sounded like a war had broken out in front of my house,” the woman added.
Before Garcia was shot, the witness video showed four officers surrounding his car, with two of them aiming guns at Garcia. “Put the gun down, motherf----r,” someone can be heard yelling at officers. “Bro, don’t shoot him,” another person yelled. The officers, however, continued pointing their weapons toward the vehicle.
“Hey! Stop f-----g moving! I will f-----g shoot you,” one officer shouted. A bystander made a final plea of officers not to shoot Garcia before a popping sound could be heard and next Garcia screaming “ah.” Gunshots followed. “That’s f----d up! That’s f----d up man,” someone could be heard yelling.
Garcia was killed less than two months after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck on May 25. Floyd’s death and resulting widespread protests pushed the conversation of police brutality against Black and brown people to center stage throughout the country.
"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," Garcia’s family attorney Daniel Ortega told The Arizona Republic.
He added that, “the sooner the family can get answers as to what happened, the better for everyone" because it’s "not uncommon” for police “to issue these statements to defend themselves as opposed to giving the facts about what happened."
Ortega told The Arizona Republic Garcia's mother was shattered. One of his two sisters was shown on video crying for justice for her brother and weeping for him at a candlelight vigil Monday. "There's no bigger shock that comes to a parent that their son or daughter has been fatally shot," Ortega told The Arizona Republic.