---
title: 'This Shouldn''t Have Happened'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=awycPS2cCmk'
video_id: 'awycPS2cCmk'
date: 2026-08-02
duration_sec: 873
---

# This Shouldn't Have Happened

> Source: [This Shouldn't Have Happened](https://youtube.com/watch?v=awycPS2cCmk)

## Summary

The video discusses the case of Axel Melendez, a 24-year-old gamer who was swatted after reporting a threat to the police. Despite informing authorities and being assured of safety, deputies shot him eight times when responding to a false emergency call, leaving him paralyzed. The video criticizes the law enforcement response and highlights the dangers of swatting.

### Key Points

- **Swatting Defined** [00:13] — Swatting is a fake emergency call to police, often targeting online gamers, and has been a problem for two decades.
- **Axel's Report** [01:35] — Axel Melendez called 911 to report a blackmail threat and potential swatting, and was assured by police that nothing would happen.
- **The Threat** [02:26] — A stranger from Sweden threatened Axel after he gave access to his computer for a 'cheat check' in Rust, leading to account breaches and a swatting threat.
- **Police Assurance** [03:08] — The dispatcher told Axel nothing would happen, and hours later a suspicious call was determined false, with a deputy promising to alert him if another came.
- **The Swatting Call** [04:18] — Two days later, a 911 call from someone impersonating Axel reported an active shooting, leading deputies to arrive at his home.
- **Police Response** [05:00] — Deputies broke a window and shot Axel eight times without giving him time to respond, despite his prior report and the false call two days earlier.
- **Body Camera Footage** [07:14] — Body cam shows Axel hiding in a closet with a legally registered handgun, not pointing it at deputies, yet he was shot multiple times, causing a T4 spinal injury and paralysis from the chest down.
- **311 Call Red Flag** [10:13] — The fake call was routed through the non-emergency 311 line, which is unusual for an active shooting, and should have raised suspicion given the prior swatting attempt.
- **Expert Opinion** [11:53] — Retired FBI agent John Yennerelli notes a misstep and emphasizes that law enforcement should check if a target is a known swatting victim before reacting.
- **Legal Action** [13:34] — Axel and his mother are seeking $320 million from Pima County Sheriff's Department and Pima County, citing incompetence and preventable tragedy.

### Conclusion

The video condemns the police response as incompetent and preventable, emphasizing that Axel did everything right but was still shot and paralyzed. It calls for accountability and highlights the need for law enforcement to consider swatting history before using force.

## Transcript

workout. We're going to put that to good use because what I want to yap about right now, I find to be an extremely infuriating story. Swatting. I'm
confident everyone knows what that term is. You don't even have to be online overly often to be familiar with swatting. This isn't some brand new phenomenon, some like mystifying new piece of tech like the blockchain or
something. the nonfgeable token of fake calls to the police department. SWAT has been a thing for the better part of two decades. So, I would expect pretty much everyone in law enforcement would at least be familiar with the term and know
how to handle it, being privy to it. But I guess that's not exactly the case here because the story I'm about to talk about is one where a victim knew that he was about to be targeted for a swatting incident, informed the police that this
bogus call was coming. this it's a load of barnacles told the police they were aware of it two days later that call comes through the fake one and still the police show up immediately bust down the glass just break the glass like it got
hit by a torpedo and then just mag dump on the guy unload on him paralyzing him >> you're told from a young age >> believing in the system protection >> if you're in trouble
>> 911 what's the emergency police >> call the police and That's what 24year-old Axel Melendez did on April 8th. emergency? >> Axel is a video gamer. He had been um
>> Melendez's attorney, Dave Seth, says Axel called 911, saying he could soon be a victim of swatting, blackmailed by a stranger overseas for money.
call like the the station and say that I have a bomb and stuff and come to my >> The police tell him, "Don't worry about it." nothing's going to happen. >> He did legitimately everything right.
When he became aware that this was a possibility, he instantly called the local law enforcement to inform them like, "Hey guys, look, this is something that might happen, told them the entirety of the situation and everything
around it and was assured that nothing's going to happen and everything was going to be all right if they did try and put in that kind of, you know, horseradish." player asked for access to his computer
cheats. So, this was I guess like a cheat check in Rust, which I'm not super Rust. I've only ever played on like the RP servers and like the goofy [ __ ] but that the community sometimes does with like PC checks to ensure like legitimate
play, no cheating. In this case, uh, when he gave that access to this individual, then he noticed that several of his accounts, including his Gmail, had been logged into, so he started
changing passwords and then got a call from someone in Sweden threatening to file a false emergency report against him. That's the swatting threat. And immediately upon hearing that, he went to 911 to report it, to try and ensure
that should this come through, they know that it's not actually an emergency. And when he told them, the dispatcher assured him nothing's going to happen. hours later, determined it was false, and told Melendez he should be all
right. According to his notice of claim, the deputy also told him someone from him contact him again if they got another SWAT call. From the sound of things, there's at least one person in that department with neurons that are
activating. So, they apparently did get a suspicious call hours later after he made contact with them. They determined it was, you know, fish paste and informed him of it and that should be all right and that if anything else
comes through, they'll alert him. But I guess they just decided to wipe their ass with that. Or they fired that one guy there who actually understood actually thinking? Give me your badge and your gun, son. You're [ __ ] out of
>> And two days later. >> Hey, is this Axel? >> Hi. Okay. You said that your father shot your your sister
>> at 5:40 in the morning. A 911 call from someone posing as Axel Melendez reporting an active shooting. Pima County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the shot. >> I really hope they catch this worm here.
This is just so [ __ ] degenerate. This is some heinous [ __ ] So he again places this swatting call. time he's pretending to be Axel and is impersonating him and putting in this report about how the sister's been killed by the father. It's
the dire situation and now the authorities roll up and they're like saying that they're there outside but they've also already got their guns break the glass. Like there was never
any time for Axel to even like begin to engage with them prior to them just blowing up the glass like a torpedo. Like what's he supposed to do? like parry it and try and explain everything in like a split second. And I'm assuming
department that they promised he'd be getting should another swatting call come through, which really surprises me because they already, I imagine, have documented like a like a documented case about like this fraudulent call that
they deem to be false 2 days ago. Why would that not be alerted to them in through as like a flag is like, "Oh, look at this. There's some very recent history. Only 48 hours ago, there was a false swatting attempt on this address.
grain of salt. Like, sure, go investigate it. Do your due diligence, blazing and blow up the door like before ever even trying to make contact with Axel like you said you would about like calling him? Maybe they did try and call
that's possible, but even still like knock on the door or something or try premises, which I have seen plenty of body cams of officers doing just that. Even in very tense situations, like just hooting and hollering from outside of a
house, it's very unlikely that the residents are even going to hear you. Like Axel probably there's a good chance he'd be playing a video game. Anyone else in the house? Good chance they're maybe like watching TV, cooking or
something. Like very rarely are people in a home in just pure [ __ ] silence in a meditative state or something that they'll hear you outside in the driveway identifying yourself. Like that's not really giving them ample opportunity to
like engage with this and explain what's going on or anything. So like there he did nothing wrong. He had already called them to alert them about the swatting. they had already determined at least one of them to be false two days ago. Why
courtesy of at least calling and checking if is this one real or like at least giving him a chance to like say like, "Hey, no, this is also false." It's just it's crazy to me that they instantly just went to [ __ ] turbo
mode here. Axel is justifiably relying on the promises that the police >> In this body camera video from that response,
a Debbie breaks a back window into Axel's room. You can hear Melinda's in the video screaming for help. His mother also inside the home calling 911. The two not knowing who was breaking in. and he gets his family's legal registered
handgun and he cowers behind a door hiding. >> You can see Melind hiding in the closet, not pointing the gun at the deputies, but that's followed by multiple shots. >> That's exactly how any sensible person
would handle something like this where all of a sudden your window just gets caved in. It just gets blasted out like you've been hit by a missile, like you're going to go and get something to defend yourself because you don't know
who it is. He has no idea these are officers that are doing that because like a little bit from outside the house and then just blew up this window to gain entry. Now again, he didn't know who it was that was doing that. He
believed that someone connected to the hackers was breaking in, which makes a lot of sense because who would possibly expect the police to be rolling up like this, like the [ __ ] Pinkertons here, especially after he had already
contacted them two days prior and was assured nothing was going to happen. And even if these calls came in, everything should be all right. And a previous swinging attempt on him was already thwarted by the the officers. So like he
officers wouldn't be doing some [ __ ] like this. So it makes sense that he would go get a gun to defend himself, but he never even like returned fire or shot or anything like that. Never even pointed the gun at him. They saw his leg
from that closet and instantly just started shooting him. He got shot eight times in multiple locations, one of them being the spine causing paralysis from the chest down. >> And I walked towards my son. He was on
>> And I walked towards my son. He was on the floor. walked towards him. >> His mother, Carmen, watched as her son bled on the floor.
bled on the floor. >> Axel did everything right. Less than two every promise they made to him. >> The bullet struck various parts of Melind's body, leaving him paralyzed
from the chest down with a T4 spinal cord injury, unable to walk. Now, this victim of nearly deadly incompetence performed by the very law enforcement it's an inexcusable tragedy that has left Axel physically and emotionally
wounded and his mother terrified to be at a home in a community she had had before considered safe. That might sound harsh, especially when obviously the main fault lies with the person that put in the swadding call in the first place.
I do think these swatting calls should should carry attempted murder charges 1,000%. These are extremely serious things, but they are completely correct that the law enforcement agency, the way they handled this is beyond incompetent.
Pretty much across the board here, a very important piece of this is that the 911 call on April 10th that led to this was actually rooted through the city's non-emergency 311 line from that person claiming to be Melendez, saying that the
father had shot their sister and was hiding in another room. So, a as he says here, no one calls 311 for a shooting. That's exactly right. How this even made it to a response from the law enforcement agency is kind of a surprise
to me because no one's calling the non-emergency line for an active shooting situation where someone has been [ __ ] murdered and especially like let's say that did happen here and then they go to 911. Well, you would
still have on file the documented case from only 2 days ago of a failed swatting attempt on that same address. And you also have Axel himself alerting the authorities to it, which I imagine they made notes of, right? I imagine
that in their system as like a potential thing to be aware of. So, how the [ __ ] thing to be aware of. So, how the [ __ ] would a 311 call So, how the [ __ ] could this call have ever even passed the smell test to reach that point where
they send the officers out guns blazing? Like I I understand in like a serious sending the officers out there, but like since you have this on file, maybe go there with the intent to like investigate first, you know, investigate
instead of like shoot first, ask questions later. At the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility is by the criminal who swatted the victim. But law enforcement has to rise to the call and look at crime is changing. John
Yennerelli, a retired FBI special agent, says from the current information, there was a misstep. And as swatting calls become more and more frequent, responding law enforcement needs to take the minute to think before reacting and
to check to see if this is a known swatting target. A life lesson you learn from a young age. >> We tell our kids, find the helpers in your community. >> Melinda now regrets putting to use. It's
lesson that the agencies need to be taught to think first. Wow, that's a crazy concept. Yeah, maybe maybe use a little bit of brain power, a bit of
elbow grease instead of just going Neanderthal mode on [ __ ] Yeah, that that it that is something very important that I guess was lacking here. [ __ ] baffling to me, man. This was so easily avoidable. Like yes, ultimately the
biggest criminal here is the SWAT and I can only sit here fingers crossed hoping that they do catch that piece of [ __ ] and throw him in jail for life. But the something that they had complete control over in how they handle this, especially
over in how they handle this, especially given what happened 2 days prior to this right at their fingertips and just chose to ignore it and not even look at it think and they didn't even go and look at like the previous uh reports of this
address. If they did, I feel like this would have went entirely differently. I I don't think they would have just broken that window ready, you know, fingers on the trigger. Like, it's just it's so sad, man. It really is just so
[ __ ] sad. And it is incompetence from this department. Yes. So, Axel and his mother are asking for a total of $320 million from Puma County Sheriff's Department and also Pima County. Now, right now, the county
days to respond to this. We have reached out to the sheriff's department today and his office and they said right now the sheriff does not comment on pending >> Naturally, of course, that sheriff is way too busy investigating reports of a
refrigerator running. I hope Axel and his family get every [ __ ] penny here that they're asking for. I think they should get an unbelievable amount of forever ruined from this. He will have
to rely on lifelong aroundthe-clock care for the rest of his life. That is just in what is very preventable. Just so [ __ ] sad, man. It really is. Anyway, just wanted to yap about that. Wishing Axel and his family the best. Hoping
that they catch the swatter here. And uh yeah, that's really about it.