As a crazed man shot randomly into their South Phoenix home on Jan. 26, Christian Diaz Rendon’s wife and children kept calling 911. As they huddled in back rooms to avoid the bullets, multiple emergency dispatchers promised them that police were on their way. But instead of helping, a Phoenix cop only compounded the family’s tragedy.
As police neared the house, family members told dispatchers that Rendon had subdued the shooter. Others, rushing out of the house’s open front door, told the advancing officers the same thing. Despite that warning, five-year veteran officer Jason Valenzuela fired a single shot through the doorway, hitting Rendon as he sat on top of the man who’d fired into his home and struck one of his children. Rendon died at the scene, his living room covered in a pool of blood.
Body-worn camera video of Rendon’s death last month — the first at the hands of a Phoenix police officer in 2026 — was released Monday as part of the Phoenix Police Department’s “critical incident briefing” on the shooting. The briefings are narrated by officers and contain snippets of body-cam and surveillance footage as well as dispatch audio. Phoenix New Times also obtained longer footage and audio in response to a public records request…