At 1:43 a.m. on Feb. 19, at least seven Phoenix police officers pointed weapons at a recycling bin on the side of a home near Laveen Village. When a hand poked out and blindly fired a handgun, multiple cops opened fire.
That barrage resulted in the death of 31-year-old Dominic Gracia, who became the fourth person to die this year after a run-in with Phoenix police. Phoenix police shot and killed 14 people last year and 12 in 2023, both up from 10 in 2022.
Friday, the Phoenix Police Department released a “critical incident briefing” about Gracia’s death. The department’s briefings are narrated by officers and made public after any police shooting or in-custody death. They typically include a limited selection of dispatch audio and body-worn camera footage…