On the morning of Sept. 28, a neighbor of David Steinbach called police, worried that the military veteran was going to kill himself. That afternoon, nearly six hours after officers arrived on the scene, Steinbach came out of the apartment with a gun and allegedly pointed it at police.
Then an officer, whom the Phoenix Police Department has publicly identified only by the last name Perez, shot Steinbach, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The 52-year-old Steinbach was the eighth person killed by Phoenix police this year; there has since been a ninth. Last year, Phoenix officers shot and killed 14 people, an increase from 12 in 2023 and 10 in 2022.
However, crucial aspects of Steinbach’s death cannot be confirmed — or refuted — by police records released by the department. Video of Steinbach’s killing was released Friday as part of a “critical incident briefing” created by Phoenix police. The department’s briefings are narrated by officers and made public after any police shooting or in-custody death. In addition to body-worn camera footage, the briefings typically include a limited selection of dispatch audio or surveillance footage from nearby businesses…