An Arizona sheriff who investigated the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie is facing a $176 million lawsuit alleging incompetence in a separate case.
Axeel Melendez, 24, says that he was left paralyzed after Pima County Sheriff’s Department deputies shot him at his home. He has filed a notice of claim obtained by the Arizona Daily Star alleging that deputies engaged in “rash decision-making and recklessly dangerous shoot-from-the-hip mentality”.
The notice of claim, which Melendez’s lawyer filed on July 24, says that at least two of the eight bullets fired by deputies struck the man. That left him with a complete spinal cord injury and broke his right leg.
The claim names Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who worked on the Guthrie case; 13 deputies; and other county officials.
According to the document, Melendez contacted the sheriff’s department on April 8 and said that hackers were threatening to send police to his home unless he paid them. Melendez said that the hackers, who had obtained his personal information while he played online video games, threatened to falsely report that he had a bomb or create another emergency response at his address.
“They can't just call SWAT on you. That's not how that works,” a dispatcher told Melendez after he called about the threats, according to audio obtained by KPHO. “Nothing's going to happen.”
However, less than 48 hours later, someone impersonating Melendez called the city’s 311 number and claimed that the 24-year-old’s father had shot his sister.
“PCSD had already received, recognized, and cleared false reports for Axeel at the same residence that also came in through 311,” the notice of claim reads.
Upon arriving at his address, deputies smashed Melendez’s bedroom window. That led him to race to wake his mother before finding her registered handgun.
Injury lawyer Dev Sethi argues in the notice of claim that officers ignored signs that the call was fake, including that the caller had given inconsistent details, that background sounds usually heard in a shooting were absent and that it came from a Wisconsin phone number.
Sethi also claims that a deputy mentioned the fake April 8 call on the way to Melendez's property and that deputies entered the home without trying to contact the 24-year-old.
County Attorney Laura Conover told The Tucson Sentinel that the incident is a “deeply complex case and the analysis is underway.”
“Our mandate is to ensure the law was followed,” Conover said. “The community knows from our history how seriously we take such cases.”
Nanos has overseen the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today anchor Savannah Guthrie. The mom has been missing for over six months.
The sheriff has been criticized for his handling of the probe and has previously admitted to not being “used to everyone hanging onto my every word and then holding me accountable for what I say.”
The Independent has contacted the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for comment.
