Arizona man allegedly paralyzed by Nancy Guthrie sheriff's deputies after alleged swatting call demands $176M

An Arizona antheral who says a "swatting" telephone ended with deputies' bullets leaving him partially paralyzed is present demanding $176 cardinal from the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

Axeel Melendez, 24, and his mother, Carmen Melendez, precocious filed a announcement of assertion against the Pima County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Chris Nanos, signaling their intent to sue, according to Arizona Public Media.

Dev Sethi, who is representing Melendez, told the outlet that the antheral and his parent were swatted, prompting a monolithic instrumentality enforcement effect astatine their house. Swatting is simply a transgression prank wherever individuals spot fake calls to 911 for a circumstantial determination with the extremity of getting a instrumentality enforcement effect to that location.

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Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos gives an update connected the probe aft the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie connected Feb. 5, 2026. (Rebecca Noble/Reuters)

"Our justness strategy recognizes the dignity of a quality beingness and the value of the completeness of your body. Axeel’s health, his independence, his quality to gain a living, his consciousness of security, that’s each been stolen distant from him," Sethi said.

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Someone impersonating Melendez initially called 311, a non-emergency number, connected April 10 and said his begetter changeable his sister, giving the code for Melendez.

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"This greeting of the April 10 telephone has galore reddish flags and hallmarks of it being a fake call, including…this telephone came into 311. Nobody reporting an exigency calls 311," Sethi said.

Sethi said the telephone was made from an retired of authorities country codification and added the caller didn't pronounce Melendez's archetypal sanction correctly.

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Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos speaks with a newsman successful his bureau connected Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital, Matt Finn/Fox News)

Melendez received a threatening connection from a hacker who stole his idiosyncratic accusation during an online video crippled and demanded a ransom to instrumentality his accounts and passwords, his lawyer said, adjacent threatening to study him to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to the fact that of his Hispanic name.

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After the threat, Melendez called 911 and shared his concerns astir a imaginable swatting incidental and was allegedly reassured determination are safeguards.

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"He tells a 911 relation each of this and she fundamentally downplays it and says, ‘Don’t worry, that’s not however it works. They can’t conscionable telephone 911 and person the SWAT squad amusement up astatine your house," Sethi said.

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According to the attorney, Pima County deputies allegedly ignored a informing that Melendez's code was a known imaginable swatting target, stating that she approached the location with a mindset to "treat it similar it’s existent until it’s not real."

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Believing an intruder was breaking in, Melendez grabbed his family's legally owned handgun and took screen down his chamber doorway arsenic deputies smashed done the window, according to the claim. The deputies past allegedly opened fire.

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Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos gives an update connected the probe aft the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old parent of U.S. writer and tv big Savannah Guthrie, who went missing from her successful Tucson, Arizona, U.S. February 5, 2026. (Rebecca Noble/Reuters)

Melendez says helium was deed successful his close thigh and near shoulder, which near him with a spinal tribunal wounded successful summation to breached ribs and a breached leg.

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"He did everything we thatch our kids to do. When you’re successful danger, erstwhile somebody’s threatening you, what’s the archetypal happening we archer each of our children? Call the police," Sethi said. "Axeel is simply a susceptible young man, his beingness has been upended. He has existent contiguous needs and we’ve fixed them an accidental to bash the close happening and resoluteness the case, but the shot is wholly successful their courts."