Axeel Melendez, a 24-year-old from Arizona, sensed something was wrong. He proactively contacted local law enforcement after he feared that hackers had obtained his personal information and were threatening to make a fake emergency call to police. Melendez said that hackers were blackmailing him for money and further warned authorities they might falsely report a violent crime at his home. 

According to Melendez, dispatchers assured him he had nothing to worry about. “They can’t just call SWAT on you. That’s not how that works,” a dispatcher reportedly told him, adding, “Nothing’s going to happen.” An investigation confirmed the hackers’ calls were fake, and allegedly assured Melendez that he would be protected from future false reports since he had already reported them in advance. A deputy even visited his home and reiterated that he would be safe if another false report was made. 

Just two days later, his suspicions were confirmed. On April 10, deputies with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department responded to a fake 911 call at Melendez’s residence reporting an active shooting. Axeel and his mother Carmen were the only ones present inside the home at the time. After hearing commotion, Carmen called 911 to report potential intruders. Moments later, she heard gunshots. When she came outside, she found her son lying on the floor.

According to Melendez’s attorneys, deputies ignored several warning signs that suggested the emergency call was a hoax. 

“So he calls 911 like a good boy, believing in the system, and says, Someone’s trying to get me in trouble and get me swatted. The 911 call, which I have here, the transcript, they said, No worries. We won’t do that. Now that you’ve called and told us, if someone tries to swat you, we won’t come to your house. You’ll be safe,” Melendez’s attorney Lunne Cadigan, said.

Police bodycam footage later released by Pima Regional Critical Incident Team (PRCIT) shows deputies arriving at Melendez’s house at around 5:40 a.m. after receiving a report about a potentially active shooting. The caller, who claimed to be “Axel Melendez,” falsely claimed that his father had shot his sister inside the home. After several failed attempts to enter the house through the front door, deputies can be seen going to the back and breaking a window using a shovel. 

Upon entering the residence, deputies encountered an armed man and fired multiple rounds, striking Melendez and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. He was immediately transported to a local hospital for treatment.  

A recording of the fabricated 911 call shows the caller saying, “…the last time I saw him he was inside the house and he, he shot my sister. I ran inside the room and locked myself inside.”

In a conversation with KOLD, Carmen said she relives the horrors from that night every day. 

“It’s every day for me, wake up and think like, ‘Oh, it was a nightmare,’ and wake up and say, ‘No, that is real. I saw everything. I was there…. And I walked towards my son. He was on the floor. I walked towards him. He said, I love you, Mom. And I saw the window, and all the officers were there, standing there. Everything is full of glass: the floor, everything. Nobody say nothing to me.”

Melendez and his mother have since filed a notice of claim, a required legal step before suing the local government. They are seeking $176 million in damages, alleging that the deputies’ reckless actions turned a preventable hoax into a tragic shooting. 

Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public video record.