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Brian Simmons

Age : 38

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 08/29/2022

Location : 43900 block of West McCord Drive, Villages at Rancho El Dorado

City : Maricopa

County : Pinal

State : Arizona

Agency : Maricopa Police Department; Pinal County Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during mental health crisis following noise complaint

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/29/2022, Maricopa Police Department officers shot and killed 38-year-old Brian Simmons outside his home in the 43900 block of West McCord Drive after responding to a noise complaint. The original reports left major questions unanswered, including whether police gunfire actually killed Simmons. Subsequent body-camera and drone releases, public-records reporting, officer interviews and extensive interviews with Simmons’s family established that two Maricopa officers fired 23 rounds at Simmons, six bullets struck him, and he died from those wounds. The later record also established that police already knew Simmons was experiencing a serious mental-health crisis and that his family had repeatedly sought police assistance to get him treatment.
Police arrived at about 10:30 a.m. because of loud music at Simmons’s house. The body-camera footage shows an initially strikingly friendly encounter. Officers knew Simmons by name. Simmons walked into the street with his dog, high-fived an officer, elbow-bumped another and hugged an officer. Police had dealt with him repeatedly before, and both officers who ultimately shot him had previous contact with him.
The later records provide crucial context for why police knew him so well. Simmons had 22 documented contacts with Maricopa police during the approximately 20 months he lived in the city, with 21 occurring during the final eight months of his life. Police reports repeatedly documented concerns about his mental condition. His family had also directly warned the department that he was deteriorating and needed psychiatric help.
The officer who held the rank of sergeant told investigators that he deliberately responded to the noise complaint because he believed he had developed a rapport with Simmons. Police had internally classified Simmons as a potential officer-safety risk, which meant a sergeant was supposed to become involved when officers dealt with him. The sergeant had been with Maricopa police since 2008. The second officer had encountered Simmons approximately one week earlier and knew he had access to numerous firearms.
The cordial interaction deteriorated after officers told Simmons to turn down the music and clean up belongings scattered around his property. Simmons walked back toward his driveway and picked up two handguns. The released video does not show him pointing those guns at police. Officers drew their weapons and repeatedly ordered him to put the guns down. Simmons eventually placed them on the driveway and raised his hands.
Simmons then picked up a hatchet. Officers continued ordering him to put it down and get on the ground. The sergeant later told investigators that although several officers had guns trained on Simmons, he initially chose not to shoot because he questioned whether the handguns Simmons had picked up were genuine.
Police escalated to less-lethal force. At the sergeant’s direction, officers fired beanbag rounds at Simmons. After the first impact produced little reaction, the sergeant ordered another round. Simmons then went inside his house while officers continued ordering him to stop.
The sergeant instructed the other officer to retrieve a rifle and obtained a rifle himself. Officers positioned themselves watching the garage entrance where Simmons had gone inside. Simmons instead emerged in the side yard behind a gate. A shotgun blast came from that area. The two officers said they then saw movement they interpreted as Simmons attempting to reload the shotgun and opened fire.
The volume of police gunfire was not disclosed in the earliest reports. The subsequent investigative records established that the sergeant fired 19 rounds and the patrol officer fired four, for a total of 23 police rounds. Six bullets struck Simmons.
After the shooting, police did not immediately approach Simmons. A prolonged standoff followed while the Pinal County Regional SWAT Team responded. Police eventually used drones to locate Simmons lying motionless in the side yard. At approximately 1:15 p.m., police deployed a flash-bang near his body in an apparent attempt to determine whether he would react. At approximately 1:30 p.m., SWAT officers approached and confirmed he was dead.
The subsequent release of body-camera footage was particularly important because the earliest public reports said only that Simmons had exchanged gunfire with police and was later found dead, leaving open whether he had been killed by police or had shot himself. The later evidence established that police shot Simmons six times.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office took over the shooting investigation because Maricopa officers had fired the fatal rounds. PCSO Sergeant Heath Rankin interviewed the two shooters on August 29 and 30 with their attorneys present. The public-records reporting based on those interviews identifies the shooters only by rank — a sergeant and a patrol officer — rather than by name.
The most substantial later development in this case was the emergence of extensive information about Simmons’s life and deteriorating condition before police killed him. He had grown up in Idaho Falls and had been athletic, outgoing and socially connected. His father described him as a talented basketball player, prankster and someone who quietly bought Christmas presents for families who could not afford them. He also enjoyed baseball, golf, snowmobiling, hunting and fishing.
Simmons later worked at the Idaho National Laboratory, initially as a security guard and subsequently as a Nuclear Facility Operator. On 11/08/2011, he and other workers were exposed to radioactive material during work involving a damaged plutonium plate. Simmons later sued Battelle Energy Alliance, alleging that workers had been knowingly exposed to radioactive dust containing plutonium. He received an undisclosed settlement.
His family and a former coworker said Simmons changed profoundly after the exposure. His father and brother described an increasingly severe deterioration in his behavior and mental state. A former coworker who had been exposed alongside Simmons recalled speaking with him shortly before his death and realizing that although it was Brian’s voice, the person he remembered seemed psychologically absent. The family believed the radiation exposure played a role in the deterioration, although the precise medical cause of Simmons’s mental condition was never established.
Most importantly for the police encounter, Maricopa police were already aware that Simmons was in crisis. His father had previously sought an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric evaluation for him. His brother Cory also contacted police seeking help. On August 13, only about two weeks before Simmons was killed, a crisis worker accompanied four officers to his home after his brother became alarmed by photographs involving firearms that Simmons had posted online. The effort did not result in sustained treatment.
Two days before the fatal encounter, police contacted Simmons again while he was behaving erratically in public. Officers followed him toward his house but deliberately decided not to confront him there because, according to their report, they were concerned about his agitated state and history.
Simmons’s brother later said police called him during this period asking whether the family was coming to get Brian. Cory told them the family was trying to help him and specifically pleaded with police not to kill his brother. According to Cory, officers themselves warned the family that an encounter with the wrong officer could result in Simmons being shot if he became sufficiently aggressive. Two days later, Maricopa officers killed him.
The later reporting therefore substantially changes the context of the original case. Police did not encounter an unknown armed man during an unexpected emergency. They went to the home of a man they knew by name, had contacted repeatedly, knew was deteriorating psychologically, knew possessed firearms, had previously handled cautiously because of that combination, and whose family had repeatedly sought help. The encounter nevertheless began over loud music and developed from friendly greetings into beanbag gunfire, Simmons retreating into his home, a shotgun blast from the side yard and 23 rounds of police gunfire that struck him six times.
No later civil wrongful-death lawsuit, publicly reported settlement or criminal prosecution of either officer was located during this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The two Maricopa Police Department officers who fired the fatal rounds remain unnamed in the public records and reporting located for this update. The investigative records establish that one was a sergeant who had worked for Maricopa police since 2008 and had dealt with Simmons previously; the second was a patrol officer who had encountered Simmons approximately one week before his death. The sergeant fired 19 rounds and the patrol officer fired four.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/pinal-breaking/2022/09/04/man-dies-after-exchanging-gunfire-maricopa-police-officers/7993663001/
https://www.inmaricopa.com/man-found-dead-after-shootout-with-police-identified/
https://www.azfamily.com/2022/08/31/maricopa-police-identify-man-found-dead-after-hours-long-standoff-with-officers/
https://www.abc15.com/news/region-central-southern-az/maricopa/man-dead-after-shooting-involving-maricopa-officers
https://inmaricopa.com/police-sheriff-release-body-camera-footage-of-fatal-shootout-in-august/
https://www.inmaricopa.com/maricopa-police-officers-in-simmons-shooting-say-their-hand-was-forced/
https://inmaricopa.com/unpacking-the-brian-simmons-story/
https://www.inmaricopa.com/we-were-trying-to-get-him-some-help/
https://www.inmaricopa.com/neighbor-brian-simmons-mental-state-had-been-alarming-for-some-time/