Phoenix police push transparency with ‘critical incident’ shooting video

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Police Department on Wednesday released its first “critical incident briefing” video as part of a pledge to increase transparency and accountability.

The 11-minute video, which was posted on social media and the city’s new officer-involved shootings web page, provides an in-depth look into an August incident.

The department said it plans to keep the public informed by creating similar briefing videos on critical incidents going forward and posting them in the same manner.

The first video starts with an introduction from Chief Jeri Williams and is narrated by Detective Luis Samudio, a public information officer.

It includes 911 audio and footage from surveillance cameras and police body-worn cameras edited into a documentary-type package.

Williams starts off by explaining that thorough investigations can be complicated and time-consuming, with witness interviews, hours of video footage and “a great deal of forensic evidence” to examine.

“While the investigative process is underway, we want to release as much information to the community as possible so you can understand the details of the incident as we currently understand them,” Williams says.

“The information may change as the investigation develops.”

In the Aug. 27 incident covered in the new video, police responded to reports that a man was firing a rifle from a backyard near Palm Lane and 36th Street.

Jesus Samuel Rodriguez, who was 32 years old at the time, is the suspect in he case. Police said he was initially booked as Anastacio Pasqual Pacheco because he was in the fingerprint system under that name. However, investigators found Motor Vehicle Department records and other information identifying him as Rodriguez.

When police knocked on his door, Rodriguez answered while carrying the weapon.

One of several officers on the scene fired his weapon through the metal security screen door. The officer who fired wasn’t named in the video, but at the time of the incident he was identified by police as Officer Jose A. Jarvis, a nine-year veteran.

Rodriguez, who wasn’t hit, then complied with orders to drop the weapon and surrendered to police.

In his narration, Samudio says the weapon was an “AR-15-style rifle modified with a bump stock.”

Rodriguez was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a weapon by a prohibited person and discharging a firearm within city limits.

The department’s transparency campaign also includes a web page with messages from Williams and links to a variety of police-related documents.

“I commend Chief Williams and her team for taking this proactive step, that provides better transparency and accountability to our residents,” Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski said in a statement. “This is a first step in rebuilding trust with the community we serve.”

It currently has information about the discipline handed out to officers involved in a shoplifting investigation that became a national story because of viral video.

One officer in the incident was fired last week and another was suspended.

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