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Kenzie Keyes

Age : 30

Gender : Female

Race : White

Date : 09/15/2021

Location : 2300 block of East Thomas Road

City : Phoenix

County : Maricopa

State : Arizona

Agency : Arizona Department of Public Safety; Maricopa County Adult Probation Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during arrest

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 09/15/2021, an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer and a Maricopa County Adult Probation officer shot and killed 30-year-old Kenzie Keyes outside a hotel in the 2300 block of East Thomas Road in Phoenix. The officers were part of a team searching for 28-year-old Jacob Hernandez, who was wanted on felony charges. Phoenix Police Department investigators handled the criminal investigation because Phoenix officers did not participate in the shooting.
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At approximately 1:30 p.m., officers located Hernandez outside the hotel with Keyes. According to Phoenix police, Hernandez and Keyes ran when they encountered the officers. The specific felony charges for which officers were attempting to arrest Hernandez were not disclosed in the contemporary public reporting.
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Police alleged that while running from officers, Hernandez produced a handgun and fatally shot himself in the head. Keyes then reportedly picked up Hernandez's handgun.
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Police alleged that Keyes pointed the handgun toward the DPS officer and Adult Probation officer. Civilian cellphone video captured at least part of the confrontation and recorded officers repeatedly ordering Keyes to drop the gun and push it away from herself. ABC15 reported that the exchange continued for approximately 30 seconds before police opened fire.
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A witness who observed portions of the confrontation likewise reported hearing officers repeatedly telling Keyes to put down the gun before hearing the fatal gunfire. The available civilian recording therefore provides evidence independent of the officers' statements that police repeatedly ordered Keyes to relinquish the weapon immediately before she was shot.
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The Arizona DPS officer and Maricopa County Adult Probation officer both discharged their duty weapons, striking Keyes. Phoenix Fire Department personnel pronounced both Keyes and Hernandez dead at the scene.
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There were therefore two deaths during the police operation. Hernandez died from what police determined was a self-inflicted gunshot wound while officers were attempting to apprehend him, while Keyes was subsequently shot and killed by the two officers. Hernandez's death was not caused by police gunfire.
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Phoenix Police conducted the criminal investigation because the officers who fired belonged to two outside agencies. Phoenix's original media advisory expressly stated that its officers were not involved in the shooting and that Phoenix investigators would handle the criminal investigation.
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The investigation did eventually receive prosecutorial review. Maricopa County Attorney's Office records show that the Keyes investigation was submitted for review on 01/21/2022. On 11/22/2022, prosecutors cleared the shooting without criminal charges. The county's current historical officer-involved-shooting database continues to list the case as "Cleared."
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The later disposition substantially improves the original 2021 database record because this case did not simply disappear after the preliminary police investigation. An outside municipal police agency investigated the two shooting officers, the completed investigation was submitted to county prosecutors approximately four months later, and prosecutors issued their decision approximately ten months after receiving it.
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The central police account is also supported more strongly than in many fatal shooting cases because civilian cellphone video captured officers' repeated commands immediately before the gunfire. However, the publicly accessible materials reviewed for this update still do not provide a detailed officer-by-officer reconstruction establishing precisely how many rounds each officer fired, how many times Keyes was struck, or which officer fired particular rounds.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Arizona Department of Public Safety officer and Maricopa County Adult Probation officer who shot Kenzie Keyes have not been publicly identified in the records located for this update.
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Because both officers fired, identification of each officer would be necessary before individual prior-shooting, misconduct, disciplinary and civil-litigation histories could reliably be attached to this case.
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The investigative structure nevertheless provided separation between the shooting officers and the principal criminal investigation. Neither Arizona DPS nor Maricopa County Adult Probation served as the primary investigating agency; Phoenix Police investigated the shooting and submitted the completed case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for independent prosecutorial review.
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The prosecutor's historical records are particularly useful in this case because they establish a final disposition that was unavailable in the initial news coverage: the investigation was submitted on 01/21/2022 and formally cleared on 11/22/2022.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2021/09/16/phoenix-police-shooting-kills-woman-24th-street-thomas-road/
https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/woman-killed-officer-involved-shooting-phoenix/75-3c1f6e1b-6c9b-4b8b-9f6b-9c2a1e7f3a4d
https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/dps-involved-in-shooting-near-24th-street-and-thomas-in-phoenix
https://patch.com/arizona/phoenix/2-killed-officer-involved-shooting-identified
https://www.phoenix.gov/content/dam/phoenix/policesite/documents/media_advisories/09152021_dpsois_%2024th_street_thomas_road.pdf
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/phoenix-pd-fugitive-kills-self-woman-fatally-shot-by-officers
https://maricopacountyattorney.org/562/First-Responder-Critical-Incident-Callou