$25 Million, One Second, and the Week That Wouldn't Stop

$25 million. That's the number the family of Christian Diaz Rendon put on his life in a notice of claim against the City of Phoenix. Honestly, I'm not sure there is a number.

This week also brought an officer who tackled a man accused of pointing a gun at his own daughters and took a bullet doing it, two cops hospitalized after a 3 a.m. ramming, a Legislature that won't require police to show their faces but voted to make them call ICE on every arrest, and ten electric bikes that might save a life downtown.

On January 26, Edgar Ledezma Garcia opened fire on a home near 75th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road in Laveen, then forced his way inside. Christian Diaz Rendon tackled him, took the shotgun away and held him down. Family members ran outside to flag down officers. At least one told Officer Jason Valenzuela, "They got him. He's over here. They've got him on the ground," according to Fox 10.

The body camera shows Valenzuela, a five-year veteran, approach the open front door with his weapon drawn and see two men struggling. He shouts one command, and about one second later fires a single rifle shot into the crowded living room. It killed Diaz Rendon, 36, a father and stepfather to six more kids, a man who had spent 15 years raising children who weren't biologically his because that's who he was.

I'll hold two things at once again. Under Graham v. Connor, the question is what a reasonable officer would do with what he knew at that moment. Dispatched to an active shooter with children inside and a confirmed victim, he saw a violent struggle and fired when neither man complied. That is a tragedy. It is not, under the law as it exists, a crime.

The question that matters: did the word that the threat was over ever reach his ears before he fired? If not, it's a system failure. If it did, it's a very different conversation.

Family attorney David Chami chose careful words: he doesn't think the officer consciously decided to shoot the homeowner, but says he approached with reckless abandon. That's negligence, a civil argument. On February 12 the family filed the $25 million notice of claim against the city and Valenzuela, the required first step before suing. The city has 60 days to respond.

County Attorney Rachel Mitchell says no charging decision will come until DPS finishes its investigation. Garcia sits in jail on 11 felony counts, including first-degree murder under the felony murder statute. If you're calling for the officer's arrest, you're not serious about the law. If you're saying nothing went wrong, you're not serious about the facts.

Monday night, about 8:15 p.m., near 15th and Atlanta avenues in south Phoenix, a 911 caller reported that Dylan Fohrenkam, 34, was pointing a gun at his daughters. Officers learned he'd gone across the street to Rosalie Park and spotted him on a bicycle. He fled.

Watch what the officers did. They followed and waited for backup instead of going hands-on. When he dumped the bike and ran toward a house, they tried a less-lethal tool first. When it failed, an officer tackled an armed man. The gun went off in the struggle and hit both of them. Fohrenkam died at the hospital. The officer was hit in the shoulder, treated and released.

Tackling a man with a loaded gun, in the dark, wearing 20 pounds of gear, is a decision that could end your life. He made it to stop a man accused minutes earlier of pointing a gun at his own children. Those girls are alive. That officer is alive. Sometimes that's the whole story.

Early Wednesday, officers spotted a speeding car near 75th Avenue and Thomas and caught up near 85th Avenue and Pinchot. The driver U-turned in a cul-de-sac and rammed the patrol car. Both officers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and the driver and a passenger were detained.

It barely cracked the news cycle. It shouldn't be invisible. A speeding stop became a vehicle assault on two cops. That's what patrol looks like at 3 a.m. every night.

Masking. The House killed, on a party-line vote, a proposal from Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear, requiring agencies to have written policies against officers wearing face masks on routine duty. It exempted tactical and undercover work. Several agencies already do this on their own: Tucson PD bars face coverings in enforcement and requires name and badge number on request, Phoenix has a similar policy, DPS Lt. Col. Davin Bird directed troopers not to mask or hide their identities, and Flagstaff said the same. Supporters of masking cite officer safety; opponents say anonymity plus authority erodes trust. The agencies that require identification haven't reported safety problems because of it.

SB 1055. The Senate passed, on a party-line vote, a bill requiring any state or local agency making an arrest to immediately notify ICE, at the scene, before any adjudication. Sen. Jake Hoffman says it targets dangerous criminals; Sen. John Kavanagh calls it intergovernmental cooperation. Democrats including Sens. Analise Ortiz and Lauren Kuby sharply opposed it.

I'm not here to tell you how to feel about immigration. I'm here about what it means for patrol: every arrest, for anything, would make the officer an immigration intake point, sorting out status and calling federal agents to a retail theft in a parking lot. Critics warn that when immigration enforcement is tied to local policing, crime reporting in immigrant communities drops and witnesses disappear. Supporters say cooperation keeps dangerous people off the street. The bill still has to clear the House.

Phoenix PD rolled out ten electric patrol bikes for the downtown operations unit. They hit 28 mph, carry red and blue lights and can cross the downtown core in about two minutes. When a one-square-mile area swells to 100,000 people for Suns games and concerts, a Tahoe is useless in the gridlock.

They were funded by Western Alliance Bank, the Phoenix Police Foundation, Downtown Phoenix Inc. and Councilwoman Ann O'Brien, and already bike-certified officers needed only a few hours of extra training. Phoenix joins Scottsdale and Tempe. Policing is logistics, and response time is everything. It isn't glamorous. It's smart. I'll take smart.

That's Arizona law enforcement this week. We are in service.

Hear every episode of The Valley 10-8 on Apple Podcasts.

This piece is adapted from Episode 4 of The Valley 10-8 podcast, first published Feb. 26, 2026, and reflects reporting by Fox 10, ABC15, AZFamily, KTAR and agency statements at the time; the investigations, the notice of claim and the bills described may have developed since. Corrections and information: [email protected].