Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 08/02/2026 1:23:32 PM PDT by xxqqzz
A Tucson man is seeking $176 million in monetary damages from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department after deputies entered his home and shot him, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
Attorneys representing 24-year-old Axeel Melendez and his mother, Carmen Melendez, filed a notice of claim against Sheriff Chris Nanos and his department last week, informing the county they intend to sue. ...
“Our justice system recognizes the dignity of a human life and the importance of the completeness of your body. Axeel’s health, his independence, his ability to earn a living, his sense of security, that’s all been stolen away from him,” said Dev Sethi, the lead attorney representing Melendez and his mother.
The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sethi says Axeel Melendez and his mother were the victims of a swatting incident – a criminal prank that can involve placing fake emergency calls to emergency responders at a specific location with the goal of provoking a significant response from law enforcement.
On April 10, a caller impersonating Melendez called the 311 non-emergency number for city services stating that his father had shot his sister and provided Melendez’s home address.
“This morning of the April 10 call has many red flags and hallmarks of it being a fake call, including…this call came into 311. Nobody reporting an emergency calls 311,” Sethi said.
Sethi said the caller mispronounced Melendez’s first name even though they were impersonating him.
The call also came from an out of state area code.
Less than 48 hours before that call, Sethi said his client had received a threatening message from someone who hacked his personal information while he was playing a multiplayer video game, demanding a ransom to get his passwords and accounts back.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.azpm.org ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
If the shooting was,in fact,unjustified he’s entitled to serious $$$.
The police knew the address was was a possible swatting target before the call.
A deputy on-scene admitted that was known to them.
The swatter called 311, not 911 from out of state.
They broke through a bedroom windows.
Reports say he was hiding behind a door with a handgun.
I cannot find info on if he fired the gun.
I’ve never heard of cops “breaking in through a bedroom window” in a situation like this. It sounds fishy. And, what is all the “swatting” business about. Also sounds fishy.
I’ll give the cops the benefit of the doubt until ALL the facts come out.
It is all true. It was a swatting call and the police did break in through a window. Hence the lawsuit.
“If the shooting was,in fact,unjustified he’s entitled to serious $$$...”
.
He and his “lawyer team”...
I know people here are for the police. However, there was nothing going on except the swat call and they broke into a house and shot this guy. It wasn’t like they were trying to arrest someone, etc.
Settle out of court for half of a million. Saves time and lawyer fees.
Did you fail to read he’s paralyzed?
The boy will be able to go home to Mexico and start his own cartel. He’ll have more money than Elon, Soros and Singingham by the time he’s through
24 qand paralyzed from the chest down = $500K? I think you’re short at least one zero, probably more like two.
Arrest the cop for aggravated battery and burglary.
Too bad FR doesn’t have a block feature for trolls.
SWATTing has been a “thing” for at least a decade now, and it’s amazing to me that our state legislatures, at least in the more red-leaning states don’t appear to take it seriously.
At minimum, it’s an attempted assault, or as in this case, a completed Arizona “aggravated assault”, and I would argue, attempted murder.
Yeah, it’s hard to catch these guys, but it’s not always impossible, and there really should be at least some effort to bring them to justice.
As to the police response, it’s long past time that in the era of CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) to flag a person/address as a potential victim. And one thing this report leaves out that has been reported in other sources is that the deputy in charge of the call, who was quoted by the lawyers as saying “we’ll treat it as real until it’s not” is female. Why is that being overlooked so agressively, hmmm?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.