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Misael Arevalo

Age : 36

Gender : Male

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 08/29/2022

Location : Days Inn, 21636 North 26th Avenue, near 26th Avenue and Deer Valley Road

City : Phoenix

County : Maricopa

State : Arizona

Agency : Phoenix Police Department

Officer(s) :Kevin Lucas; additional officers Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Bystander killed during mass shooting and police response

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/28/2022, 36-year-old Misael Arevalo was killed when he and four other people drove into the parking lot of the Days Inn near 26th Avenue and Deer Valley Road while 24-year-old Isaiah Steven Williams was carrying out a mass shooting. Arevalo had no involvement in the violence and was one of two bystanders killed before Phoenix Police Department officers arrived and exchanged gunfire with Williams.
Surveillance video later released by Phoenix police provided a detailed reconstruction. Williams emerged from a motel room wearing tactical equipment, including a ballistic vest with steel plates, helmet, gas mask and knee pads, and carrying a semiautomatic rifle. He immediately began firing throughout the motel property and toward vehicles and buildings.
During the shooting, a white vehicle carrying five people entered the parking lot. Williams turned toward the vehicle and opened fire on it. Arevalo and 44-year-old Karla Garzona were struck and fatally wounded. The other three people escaped from the vehicle and ran from the parking lot. The released surveillance video documents the attack on the vehicle.
Williams continued firing after killing Arevalo and Garzona. He shot toward other people, vehicles and surrounding buildings and attempted to throw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a nearby Waffle House. The device struck the window but failed to ignite the building. Three additional civilians were wounded during the overall attack.
Phoenix police officers responding to the active shooting were then met with sustained gunfire. Williams fired repeatedly at police vehicles, striking four patrol SUVs. One officer was struck by a bullet and another, Officer Kevin Lucas, was wounded by shrapnel. Lucas returned fire, but the subsequent investigation determined that police gunfire did not kill Williams. Williams later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators ultimately recovered approximately 200 spent rifle casings, five empty magazines, unused flash-bang devices and other tactical equipment from the scene, demonstrating the extraordinary volume of gunfire during the attack.
Arevalo and Garzona were civilians who happened to drive into the motel parking lot while the shooting was underway. Neither was involved in the events that precipitated the shooting, and neither was being pursued, investigated or confronted by police. Their deaths were caused by Williams's gunfire rather than police gunfire.
Because Arevalo was killed by Williams rather than by police, this case is materially different from a bystander killed by police gunfire or by a police pursuit. If retained in the police-death database because his death occurred within the same active police incident as Williams's suicide under police duress, the Event field should preserve that distinction rather than attributing Arevalo's death directly to police.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Phoenix Police Officer Kevin Lucas was the identified officer who returned fire during the subsequent exchange with Williams. Lucas did not shoot Arevalo; Arevalo had already been shot by Williams before the police gunfire.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.azfamily.com/2022/08/30/3-dead-2-police-officers-injured-after-shootout-outside-north-phoenix-hotel/
https://www.azfamily.com/2022/09/10/police-release-graphic-video-phoenix-mass-shooting-that-left-3-dead-2-officers-hurt/
https://www.azfamily.com/2022/09/03/second-officer-injured-mass-shooting-north-phoenix-motel-released-hospital/
https://www.phoenix.gov/policesite/Documents/OIS_Media_Advisory_Library/OIS_22-16_2600_W_Deer_Valley.pdf