Man seeks millions after being shot by Pima deputies in 'swatting' incident
Local news
Man seeks millions after being shot by Pima deputies in 'swatting' incident
Axeel Melendez, 24, is paralyzed from the chest down after deputies shot him while responding to a false 911 call
Posted Jul 29, 2026, 5:09 pm
Mia Kortright
TucsonSentinel.com
Dev SethiAxeel Melendez celebrates his 24th birthday in the hospital after PCSD deputies shot him while responding to a fake 911 call at his home.
A Tucson man is asking Pima County to pay $176 million after sheriff's deputies shot him, leaving him paralyzed, when online hackers falsely reported a shooting at his home. The man had alerted the Pima County Sheriff's Department to fears that he would be "swatted" just days earlier.<br>Axeel Melendez, 24, recently filed a notice of claim against the Sheriff's Department and Pima County, alleging deputies and 911 dispatchers failed to properly respond to an April 10 "swatting" call that directed deputies to his home, where they shot him multiple times.<br>Arizona law requires anyone who may have a civil case against a public entity to file a notice of claim within 180 days from the "cause of action." That does not necessarily mean a lawsuit will be filed, but is a required first step. The county must respond within 60 days or the claim is deemed denied, and Melendez would be able to file a suit.<br>Whether Melendez does so depends on whether the county agrees to pay him damages, attorney Dev Sethi said.<br>Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos declined to comment on the details of the claim and referred a Tucson Sentinel reporter to County Attorney Laura Conover.<br>"It will be a deeply complex case, and the analysis is underway," Conover wrote in a text message. "Our mandate is to ensure the law was followed. The community knows from our history how seriously we take such cases."<br>She added that her office will release more information on the case as soon as they can.<br>Any settlement would have to be approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
Swatting<br>The FBI defines "swatting" as the malicious act of falsely reporting an emergency to send law enforcement and emergency responders to the location of an innocent person, "creating chaos and potentially resulting in violence."<br>Melendez called 911 just two days before deputies shot him, fearing that was exactly what would happen to him. He informed 911 and Sheriff's Department employees of his concerns.<br>Following the shooting, he has moved to Phoenix to live with his sister and her partner after months in the hospital. He is going through a "constellation" of therapies and treatments to adjust to life as a paraplegic, Sethi said.<br>"He did nothing wrong," Sethi said. "He did what we tell our kids to do. He turned to the police."<br>'Nothing's going to happen'<br>Melendez first called 911 on April 8. He explained to the dispatcher who answered that he was playing "Rust," a multiplayer video game, on his personal computer when another player asked for access to his computer to check that he wasn't using any cheat codes.<br>Melendez obliged the other player's request.<br>Shortly after, Melendez said, he noticed someone had logged into several of his online accounts, including his Gmail. Once he began changing the passwords to those accounts, he said, someone called him from Sweden and threatened to file a false emergency report against him.<br>The 911 dispatcher assured him "nothing's going to happen" during the call. Deputies got a suspicious call about Melendez hours later, but determined it was false, and told Melendez "he should be alright," according to his notice of claim.<br>The deputy also told him someone from the Sheriff's Department would contact him if they got another "swat" call, the claim said.<br>But early on the morning of April 10, deputies arrived with their guns drawn at the San Xavier-area home Melendez and mother lived.
Two deputies broke Melendez's bedroom window with a shovel before "indiscriminately" firing at least eight rounds in his direction, Sethi said.<br>At least two of the bullets hit Melendez, shattering his left shoulder, ribs and spine, plus his right femur and hip.<br>The bullet that hit the upper left side of his body also severely injured his spinal cord, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the chest down.<br>"In the end, Axeel was the victim of nearly deadly incompetence performed by the very law enforcement agency that promised to protect him," Sethi wrote in the notice. " It’s an inexcusable tragedy that has left Axeel physically and emotionally wounded, and his mother terrified to be at home in a community she had before considered safe."<br>The two deputies "encountered a male with a handgun" before they shot him, according to an April 10 news release from PCSD.<br>Melendez did grab a "legal, registered" gun once he heard the glass shatter, Sethi said, but he ducked behind a partially closed door.<br>He believed someone connected to the hackers was breaking in, Sethi added.<br>The PCSD...