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LEO Round Table, June 29, 2026

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S11E126, Thwarted Mass Shooting Of Jewish Organization Leads To Serious Indictment

LEO Round Table with Chip DeBlock

S11E126, Thwarted Mass Shooting Of Jewish Organization Leads To Serious Indictment

Thwarted mass shooting of Jewish organization leads to serious indictment. Former police chief wins $1.2M lawsuit against town. Man shot and paralyzed as a result of a swatting call. Suspect charged multiple times after hitting people with his car.

Police Response, Swatting Dangers, and High-Stakes Public Safety Cases

A Law Enforcement Panel Opens With High-Stakes Cases

The episode begins with host Chip DeBlock introducing LEO Roundtable, the panelists, and the show’s law-enforcement-centered format. He welcomes Lieutenant Randy Sutton and Scott Stier, acknowledges the show’s sponsors and media partners, and previews several public-safety stories. The planned topics include an alleged plot against a Jewish organization in Florida, a former police chief’s wrongful-termination case, a swatting incident that led to a homeowner being shot, a vehicle assault case in California, and other police-response incidents.

A Florida Plot Raises Questions About Intelligence and Hate Crimes

The first major story concerns a Florida man federally indicted after authorities said they stopped a planned mass shooting at a Jewish nonprofit organization. The host describes the alleged weapons, potential charges, and agencies involved, while Scott Stier notes that the case sounds like it required substantial police work. Randy Sutton suggests the matter may have involved intelligence gathering, informants, or undercover work, and then broadens the conversation into his concern about antisemitic attacks and political rhetoric.

The Panel Connects Leadership to Investigative Outcomes

The discussion shifts from federal law enforcement to the Nancy Guthrie case, which the panelists describe as a troubled investigation involving missed opportunities and disputed leadership decisions. The host and Randy Sutton criticize the sheriff’s handling of the matter and discuss whether involving the FBI earlier could have changed the outcome. They also reflect on the importance of agency leadership, accountability, and the public’s ability to respond through recall efforts or elections.

A Wrongful-Termination Case Highlights Small-Town Police Politics

The next segment examines a former Sherborn police chief’s $1.2 million wrongful-termination award. The host summarizes allegations that town officials and a department insider conspired to remove the chief, including claims involving a female officer’s complaint and internal department politics. Randy Sutton frames the situation as an example of small-town politics affecting law enforcement careers, while Scott Stier argues the award may not be enough given the damage to the chief’s professional life.

The Wounded Blue Segment Centers Officer Injury, Recovery, and Support

Before the swatting story, Randy Sutton shares his recent experience supporting a Mississippi deputy who was critically wounded after a traffic stop involving heavily armed suspects. He explains how The Wounded Blue reached the officer’s family, traveled to the officer’s bedside, and helped provide support during the early stages of recovery. Sutton emphasizes the emotional impact of seeing the injured deputy and asks listeners to support The Wounded Blue’s work with injured law enforcement officers.

Swatting and Vehicle Attacks Bring the Episode to a Troubling Close

The final major discussions focus on a Tucson swatting incident and a Culver City case involving a suspect accused of hitting multiple pedestrians during a vehicle pursuit. In the swatting segment, the panel weighs both the deputies’ need to enter under the belief that someone had been shot and the homeowner’s possible confusion when police broke in. In the vehicle-assault segment, the host and Randy Sutton discuss cars being used as weapons, the difficulty of protecting pedestrians, and the severity of the charges and bail in the California case.

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law enforcement news, police response, swatting call, officer safety, wrongful termination lawsuit, hate crime indictment, mass shooting plot, wounded officer support, vehicular assault, police pursuit

LEO Round Table

LEO Round Table with Chip DeBlock
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Chip DeBlock

LEO Round Table is a nationally syndicated law enforcement satellite radio talk show discussing today's news and issues from a law enforcement perspective. They also have components on TV, Podcasts, and Social Media. Their panelists are among a Who's Who of law enforcement professionals and attorneys from around the country.

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Panelists are among a Who’s Who of law enforcement professionals and attorneys from across the country and include celebrity panelists such as Lt. Col. David Grossman, Sheriff Mark Lamb, Sheriff David Clarke, Sheriff Grady Judd, Sheriff Mark Crider (FBI Whistleblower) Chief Joel Shults, Chief Chris Noeller, Lt. Dave “JD Buck Savage” Smith, Lt. Randy Sutton (Fox News & Newsmax), Lt. Bob Kroll (candidate for Minnesota U.S. Marshal), Lt. Darrin Porcher (CNN & Fox News), Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (Fox News & Newsmax), DEA Agent Robert Mazur (author of The Infiltrator and The Betrayal books and movies), Secret Service SAC Rich Staropoli (Fox News & Newsmax), Secret Service SAC Frank Loveridge (Fox News), ATF Agent Dan O’Kelly (candidate for ATF Director). We also have First Amendment expert Attorney Luke Lirot, Search & Seizure expert Attorney Anthony Bandiero, Second Amendment expert Attorney Eric Friday, Public Safety Professor/Attorney Ken Afienko, and Law Enforcement Rights Expert Attorney Marc Curtis. A lot of our panelists are regular contributors on national media outlets like Fox News, Newsmax and CNN. You will not find names like this under one roof anywhere else!
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Show Transcript (automatic text, but it is not 100 percent accurate)

Police Response, Swatting Dangers, and High-Stakes Public Safety Cases

Speaker Identification

Speaker 1 – Host: Identified from the introduction as Chip DeBlock, host of LEO Roundtable. The transcript repeatedly introduces him as the host, though the automated transcription rendered the name inconsistently.

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton: Identified from the host’s introduction as a retired Las Vegas Metro Police lieutenant and founder of The Wounded Blue. He participates in the discussion and later speaks about The Wounded Blue and the law enforcement survival summit.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier: Identified from the host’s introduction as a retired Green Beret and former Delta Force operative. The automated transcription rendered his name inconsistently, so the spelling should be verified.

Speaker 4 – Prerecorded Sponsor Voice / Commercial Narrator: Identified from sponsor and commercial segments for Galls, Comply Technologies, and GunLearn.

Speaker 5 – Body-Camera / Video Audio: Identified where the transcript appears to include audio from a law enforcement video clip. Some phrases were unclear and are treated as video-audio excerpts rather than panel discussion.

Speaker 1 – Host:
Welcome to LEO Roundtable at LEORoundtable.com. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I’m your host. We are a group of law enforcement professionals who talk about today’s news and issues from a law enforcement perspective.

Let me introduce the crew. Guys, if you do not mind waiting for the video portion of our show, not that the viewers cannot tell you apart, we have Lieutenant Randy Sutton from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, also the founder of The Wounded Blue at TheWoundedBlue.org. Thanks, Lieutenant, for being with us.

We also have Scott Stier, retired Green Beret and former Delta Force operative. Scott has been a great addition to the show and brings all the right questions. Thanks for being on the show.

Also, a shout-out to our sponsors. We have our title sponsor, Galls, at Galls.com. Do not forget that the discount code is RADIO15. We also have Comply Technologies at ComplyTechnologies.com, our satellite sponsor. We have GunLearn.com, MyMedicare.live, and TwoBells.com. They built a new online store for LEO Roundtable, so check that out. You can get shirts like the one I’m wearing, the mug behind me, and all kinds of cool stuff.

Also, a shout-out to Brian Burns from the Tampa Free Press and to former LEO man and our very own Travis Yates with LawOfficer.com. Thanks for helping us make the show successful and helping us out with the streams.

Scott always wants me to mention how you can watch the show. If there is a podcast platform, I can just about guarantee we are on it, especially Spotify and Apple iTunes, two of the biggest. We are also on social media: Rumble, YouTube, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, Truth Social, and the list goes on. The best way to figure it out is to go to LEORoundtable.com. At the top menu bar, it gives you a list of where we are: TV, radio, podcast, social media, all the radio stations, the dates and times of the broadcast, the call signs, station numbers, and all that stuff. It is all there at LEORoundtable.com.

To whet the appetite for what in the world we are going to be talking about today, we do have a main topic. We are covering a Florida man who was indicted for a thwarted mass shooting at a Jewish organization. We are going to talk about that. We have a former police chief who was awarded $1.2 million, and we will discuss why he ended up suing the town. That is pretty interesting.

We have an armed man paralyzed after being shot inside his home after a swatting call. Does that sound familiar? We also have a suspect charged with several counts after hitting multiple pedestrians during a chase. When we get to that one, I want every cop and civilian to ask themselves, “What would you do in a situation like that?”

Then we have a toddler pulling a loaded gun from a diaper bag during a Saint Paul traffic stop. I tell you, stuff always goes down either in Minneapolis or right around Minneapolis. Lastly, actually two more, body cam shows a shootout between a suspect and an Oklahoma City police officer, or officers, and then we have two officers injured and a suspect shot when he tries to flee from a traffic stop. We will cover all those, assuming we have time to get to them.

On this first one, guys, from TampaFreePress.com: Florida man indicted for thwarted mass shooting at a Jewish organization. I am not going to give the bad guy’s name, but he is a 27-year-old Gainesville guy facing a potential life sentence, which is a good thing, after a federal grand jury indicted him for allegedly plotting the mass shooting at a Jewish nonprofit organization here in Florida.

He is charged in the Southern District of Florida with federal hate crimes, which jammed him up as far as the penalties, and firearms offenses following an investigation into the end of last year. According to court records, the attempted attack took place on December 23rd, just before Christmas, and this was 2024. The article said late last year, but the date says 2024. I wonder whether they got the date wrong, because late last year would have been 2025.

Prosecutors alleged that our bad guy armed himself with an AR-15-style rifle, had a suppressor on it, and traveled to the office of a nonprofit organization dedicated to lobbying the U.S. government in support of Israel. Authorities say this bad guy intended to carry out a mass shooting targeting the organization’s employees specifically because they were Jewish.

The grand jury returned three specific charges against this bad guy: attempted hate crime, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, and possession of a short-barreled rifle, just to name a few. The legal penalties, if he is convicted, are severe. The attempted hate crime charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. The firearm charge brings a mandatory consecutive sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Possession of a short-barreled rifle, which I am sure Scott is adding up because he knows this by heart, carries a maximum penalty of five years.

What I like about this is that all the agencies participated. We have the FBI Jacksonville field office, the FBI Miami field office, ATF’s field office in Miami as well, Gainesville Police Department, and the Tallahassee Police Department. They are also involved in this. So we have a lot of things involved from a lot of different people.

Guys, what do you think about this one?

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
Did they ever talk about how they found this guy out?

Speaker 1 – Host:
Correct.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
It sounds like there were a lot of moving parts. Without knowing the backstory, it sounds like it was probably a lot of good police work to be able to stop this from potentially happening.

Speaker 1 – Host:
No, I agree. Of course, now we are at the stage where they are charging the guy, so they have had time to go down that investigatory rabbit hole and get more information.

Randy?

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
I am thinking that perhaps this was intelligence gathering at its best. One thing we know is that the FBI is pretty good at putting in undercovers and informants and then mining that information. I am just reading between the lines, but it sounds like it was something of that nature that thwarted this attack. He probably communicated with someone who dimed him out, and they used all their investigative resources to make sure this did not happen.

Let’s go a little deeper into this. We are seeing more and more antisemitic attacks occurring all over the United States. When you look at some of the political leadership, literally encouraging hate against Israel and against Jews, it is pretty frightening.

You can see that political leadership, and unfortunately, let’s call it what it is, Democratic political leadership, especially on the radical point of view, is ginning up all this hatred. What is really frightening is looking at what happened in New York during these elections. Radical, terrorist-sympathizing, antisemitic leadership has been elected now in major cities across the United States, including New York City. This is just going to get worse. That is the harsh reality here.

Speaker 1 – Host:
Randy, I agree with everything you said. You talked about how great the FBI is at doing its job, doing these investigations, and intelligence gathering. It brings me back to the Nancy Guthrie investigation and why we have a sheriff there who has egg on his face because he did not want to get the FBI involved because he has a beef with them, which, in my opinion, cost them the investigation. Any thoughts on that?

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
There has been a big resurgence in interest in the Nancy Guthrie case since it was made public that now they are looking at the ransom demands and saying they were legitimate. How were they handled? This case is a mess.

At the outset, we have so many mistakes at the sheriff’s department and in the leadership of that sheriff’s department. I believe, as you said, that it may have cost the investigation. I do, too. That sheriff is still serving.

Speaker 1 – Host:
Well, he is holding office.

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
Exactly. It is a mess, and honestly, I do not know that they will ever solve this case.

Speaker 1 – Host:
It is sad. Missed opportunities.

Anyhow, it is not the old FBI. It is the new FBI because we have Trump 2.0. I will tell you, they have been jamming. I will admit that for a while there I thought they should get rid of the FBI letters and come up with a different name for the agency because they had such a bad reputation. I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. I did not think it was possible to turn them around and get the reputation back. I think both have happened. I do not even think it is an arguable point; that should be factual by now.

I do not know why the sheriff did not take the opportunity. If anything goes wrong, at least he can say, “I gave this to the FBI. I let them do what they do best.” But that is not what he did. He deserves all the criticism he is getting right now, for sure.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
It is amazing how much influence leadership has. You put the right leadership in there, set the culture the right way, hold people accountable, and call people out. It is very powerful.

Speaker 1 – Host:
Now let’s see what happens. If the governor is not going to replace the sheriff because of what happened, let’s see what the voters do at the polls. I am curious.

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
There is a recall effort going on.

Speaker 1 – Host:
That is good to hear. I will tell you one thing. If you remember, we had Sheriff Scott Israel here in Florida down in Broward, and Governor DeSantis removed him. It can happen. Good luck. I hope that happens.

If you guys are ready, we have another one that we are holding onto here. It is an updated article from MetroWestDailyNews.com. We have a former Sherborn police chief awarded $1.2 million, and we will discuss why he sued the town.

A Middlesex Superior Court jury has awarded former Sherborn Police Chief Richard Thompson $1.2 million in a wrongful-termination suit against a former town administrator, David Williams. We are going to go down the rabbit hole and talk about this story. It is actually a pretty interesting one, so stick with us. We have our first commercial break coming up. We will be right back.

Speaker 4 – Prerecorded Sponsor Voice / Commercial Narrator:
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Speaker 1 – Host:
Welcome back to LEO Roundtable at LEORoundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I am your host. We are joined by Lieutenant Randy Sutton, founder of The Wounded Blue at TheWoundedBlue.org and retired Las Vegas Metro Police lieutenant. We have also got Scott Stier, former Green Beret and Delta Force operative. Thanks, guys, for being on the show.

We left off talking about Sherborn Police Chief Richard Thompson. He gets a $1.2 million wrongful-termination award, or he wins this suit against a former town administrator named David Williams. The article is from MetroWestDailyNews.com and is titled “Former Sherborn Police Chief Awarded $1.2 Million,” and now we are going to get into why he actually sued the town. I am glad that he won.

Chief Thompson was fired back in 2020 by the Sherborn Select Board, which alleged abuse of power, harassment, and creating a climate of fear within the police department. The chief then filed a suit against the board, as well as the administrators, Williams and a guy named David Bento. Bento became acting police chief when Chief Thompson was placed on leave.

When you hear the story about what happened, you are going to say, “Crap.” It is amazing this guy was able to recover.

The jury found only the administrator, Williams, responsible. According to the lawsuit, Williams and Bento, the guy who became chief, conspired together to get Chief Thompson fired. They allegedly used a female officer as a pawn to make a complaint against him in order to get him fired.

I can see Scott shaking his head, and I know, Randy, the very thought of it. I do not know what happened with that female officer. I hope she is no longer working there, because you cannot get more wrong than that.

The suit alleged that Bento, the guy who became chief when they got rid of the prior chief, was upset because Chief Thompson asked Bento’s son to resign as a special police officer and did not include Bento in the department’s succession plan. That is the rationale. That is why the guy got upset.

Anyhow, the chief won the lawsuit. Now, $1.2 million sounds like a lot of money to a lot of people, and this happened back in 2020. Think about this for a second. This guy is a police chief. I do not know what he made, but that was potentially six years ago. If he was making $100,000, that is $600,000 over six years. I do not know what he was making, but even if he was only making $30,000 a year, if I lose my job and they get a female cop to lie about me in order to get me to lose my job, they better be paying me a lot more than $1.2 million. Today, that is not enough money. It is not a lot of money.

Your thoughts on this, guys? Randy, why don’t you start us off?

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
You have to read a lot between the lines on this. This is small-town politics. When you hear the circumstances that the second-in-command’s son was asked to leave the department, you can see how that would play a massive role. This is what happens when small-town politics enters this equation.

This is almost six years ago. This guy has not been able to find a police job because of this, so this really has had a massive effect on his life. You can imagine what he has been going through for six years. I am very happy to see that he got a settlement, although it sounds to me like they are going to fight the settlement as well.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
The first thing I thought was, good, the guy was vindicated in some way. But that is not enough. This guy should be able to go down and retire in Florida and never have to work again. Make an example of this.

Only one person was found guilty in all this? Did I understand that correctly?

Speaker 1 – Host:
They blamed Williams, the one guy.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
How is that even possible? This was a conspiracy. There were multiple people involved. How come only one was found? Either way, it is a little bit of justice, but it was not enough.

Speaker 1 – Host:
I want to find out what happened to the female officer, to be honest with you guys. I am really curious about that part of it. Without her, it never would have happened. I would love to find out what the deal was with her.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
There is probably more to that story.

Speaker 1 – Host:
You talked about reading between the lines, and we have all been around long enough to know. It does not matter whether you are military or law enforcement. We all know, especially if you are a firefighter. Come on. That would be like asking how many relationships she would have if she were in the fire department.

All right, if you guys are ready, we have a story with a video component coming up here, and another paralyzed guy. We were just talking about Randy sharing something with us.

Randy, before we hit the story, can you give us some history about the tragedy you are supporting? This guy has been through hell in a handbasket, and he is not at the end of the road yet, which I think is a good thing because we have hope that his situation will improve. Can you give us a little history about that before we cover this next story?

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
This is a tragic set of circumstances. This Mississippi deputy made a car stop for a seat belt violation. What he did not know was that these guys were armed to the teeth and that their brother, three days before, murdered two elderly people and then got into a shootout with police and was shot.

He shot a police officer who, as I said, is the luckiest cop in the world. As the officer was walking up on the house where he had just committed this double murder, the suspect spotted him, opened fire, and ambushed him. Three bullets hit him but went through his clothing without touching his body. That guy needs to go play the lottery. He returned fire and shot the suspect, who is now in custody.

Speaker 1 – Host:
We will hit the finish line on that when we come back after this commercial break, and then we are going to talk about this story where a welfare check goes bad. We will be right back, guys. Stick with us.

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Speaker 1 – Host:
Welcome back to LEO Roundtable at LEORoundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I am your host. We are joined by Lieutenant Randy Sutton, former Las Vegas Metro Police lieutenant and founder of The Wounded Blue at TheWoundedBlue.org. We also have Scott Stier, former Green Beret and Delta Force operative.

Man, I need that energy drink. It is working good.

We left off talking about Randy being with a deputy who went through hell. He is really hurt right now. His battle is not over, but Randy is wrapping up telling us what happened with him before we cover this next story, where an armed man gets paralyzed after being shot inside his own home on a swatting call. There are some similarities between these two.

Randy, go ahead and finish what you were talking about before the commercial break, please.

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
The first incident takes place where the brother of the two suspects who shot Deputy Yates Rodney in Mississippi brutally murdered two elderly people, then shot a police officer as he came up to do a welfare check, not knowing what he was walking into. Luckily, that officer was uninjured because the bullets hit his clothing but did not hit his body. Amazing.

Then, three days later, Deputy Yates makes a seat belt violation car stop. These two bad guys, who are the brothers, are only 18 and 19 years old. They are already hardened criminals. Basically, one guy pretended to cooperate, and he had an AK-47 under his body. Then they ambushed the deputy, who is now in Shepherd Center recovering. They do not know what his prognosis will be.

I have literally spent the last six days with him and his family. I wish we had the resources for me to go to the bedside of every cop who has been shot, because what this revealed to me was how critically important it is at the very outset of being injured for these officers and their families to know that there are support services available for them.

Here is what happened. I happened to watch the sheriff of this county give the press release the day after the shooting, and he made a pronouncement that absolutely sickened me. He said this officer will never walk again. The way he made that pronouncement really pissed me off, because it is too soon to make a pronouncement like that.

So here is what I did. I reached out to that department, was blown off by the leadership after offering our services, but managed to get through to the family through a deputy who is this officer’s best friend. We were on a plane the next day to be with them by his bedside.

This may be the most impactful thing since I created The Wounded Blue. It impacted me in ways that I cannot even describe. Being there with this family, seeing their suffering, seeing this officer who is literally facing the fight of his life, we were there by his bedside.

I did a short video. If you go to The Wounded Blue Facebook page, this is incredible. As we were wheeling him out of the hospital where he received the emergency treatment, on the way to Shepherd Center, there was an air ambulance waiting for him. I asked him, “Is there something you would like to say to the people who have been so supportive of you during these last few days?” He gave a short thank-you and a call for prayer.

It was so impactful that in three days it received almost 700,000 views on our Facebook page and thousands of shares, because it touched people. It touched people in ways that you cannot forecast. It shows the courage of this officer and the gratitude for people’s thoughts and prayers.

I literally left his bedside two days ago, and he is in the fight for his life. I ask people to go to TheWoundedBlue.org, see who we are, see what we do, and give what you can. The money it costs to be there for these men and women is very expensive, and I cannot do it alone. I need the help of people.

We even have a $9.11 campaign. Just donate $9.11 monthly to The Wounded Blue. When people need help, they call 911. When the police need help, they call The Wounded Blue. I am asking all of our people watching right now to go to our website and give what you can. It may indeed save a life.

Speaker 1 – Host:
Guys, I give monthly. I feel great about it, and I sleep better at night, to be honest with you. When Randy comes on and tells these stories, I know Randy is doing that for me. I cannot get away and do that. I cannot go visit people. Contributions help Randy and The Wounded Blue do what they do, which means we are actually doing that through them. It is kind of cool.

This next story, and thank you, Randy, for what you said. I am glad to support you guys because it is one of those rare opportunities where I know I am not going to get embarrassed, and I know they are doing good work with my money.

At Rumble.com, this is from Butters RP, a law enforcement video channel. We have an armed man paralyzed after being shot inside his home after a swatting call.

Speaker 5 – Body-Camera / Video Audio:
Come on, show your hands.

Okay. Get that corner.

Push up on this side if you can.

Show the floor! Show the floor! Show the floor!

Speaker 1 – Host:
We are going to be in Arizona on this one. This is in Tucson.

On Tuesday, June 23rd, the Pima Regional Critical Incident Team released a video report about an incident that ended with a guy named Axzil Melendez being shot by a deputy. I do not want to say the guy was a bad guy, because this is his home. Listen to how things go down.

The 23-year-old Melendez, the resident, was taken to the hospital with injuries that the article says were not life-threatening, but when you go to the title, it says “Armed Man Paralyzed.” I am assuming, technically, maybe the injuries were not life-threatening, but apparently he is paralyzed as a result of the shooting.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said three of its deputies suffered minor injuries, but they were not related to the shooting.

The incident started on April 10th when somebody called 311. The caller said they were Axzil Melendez and claimed that his father had just shot his younger sister. While the incident is still under investigation, the group said Melendez was not the caller and that it was likely a swatting incident, which, like Randy said, just makes you mad.

Deputies did not know that at the time. They were going there, treating it as a bona fide call when they responded to the home.

The deputies knocked twice on the front door. They clearly announced who they were. Nobody came to the door, and they were not able to get inside. So they went around to the back, where there was a glass sliding door. They were not able to get inside there either, so a deputy grabbed a shovel.

Remember what the call is. They think people have been shot. So they broke the window out of the glass sliding door and made entry into the room.

When they went inside, they encountered Melendez, who ended up being armed with a gun. They do freeze frames, and you can see a gun sticking out from behind a door. It looks like maybe it was a closet door. You only see the gun, and then you see the guy open up and the gun points right at the deputies. They did not have a choice.

The deputy who was inside the home fired, as did the deputy who was outside the home. It is unclear whether Melendez, the resident, ever fired his gun, but he could be heard yelling at the deputies before they ended up shooting him. That is the way it goes down. Wow.

Scott, why don’t you start us off on this one?

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
When you say swatting, Melendez was unaware that somebody called the cops?

Speaker 1 – Host:
Yeah. We all run the risk of that, especially now. Just like if I am doing this show and I have called TPD and said, “Look, my worst fear is someone does a swatting call while I am doing a live show.” TPD thinks I just whacked my wife, killed her, or I am stabbing her at my house, and they roll in here while I am unbeknownst. I do not know what is going on.

The homeowner was totally clueless about this. Somebody swatted him. Cops rolled up saying his dad had just shot his sister or whatever the scenario was, and they were going in. Why he did not answer or hear the deputies or acknowledge them before, and then shows up with a gun when they make forced entry, I do not know.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
This whole thing seems crazy. The cops were screaming. They were yelling. There was a window breaking. They were saying, “Hey, we are the cops.” I do not understand how he came out. Then he came out with his gun almost like he wanted them to see the gun first, without seeing him.

The whole thing is weird to me. Again, it goes back to so much respect for law enforcement officers, because you never know what you are going to show up to. This is crazy. How do you even prepare for that?

I know there is going to be another story that shows you do not know what cops are going to encounter with the baby. It is just crazy to me. I do not know. I have nothing to say. It is just crazy.

If the guy had no idea, then, yeah, I feel bad for him. But at the same time, you hear the cops coming in and knocking out the window. Why are you coming out of a door with the first thing they can see being your gun? That is all they see. The whole thing is weird to me.

Speaker 1 – Host:
No, they had no choice.

Guys, we are coming up on our third commercial break. Randy is going to be up after that, and we have some other stuff to talk about. What a wild story. Stick with us. Commercial break, and we will be right back.

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Speaker 1 – Host:
Welcome back to LEO Roundtable at LEORoundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I am your host. We are joined by Scott Stier, former Green Beret and Delta Force operative, and Lieutenant Randy Sutton, retired Las Vegas Metro Police lieutenant and founder of The Wounded Blue at TheWoundedBlue.org.

We have been talking about a swatting call where not a bad guy, but a resident, I think he is young, around 23 years old, ends up getting shot and apparently paralyzed by the cops. The gun comes out first, and then he comes out with the gun pointing at the cops. The Pima County Sheriff’s Office is vocal about doing the entry after they break the glass sliding door. The glass shatters everywhere. Anywhere in the house, you should be able to hear that.

Scott just gave his words about it. Randy Sutton, you are up.

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
We have seen a massive increase in these swatting calls. Usually, the people doing this are going after people who are their enemy. Often, it is actually a political situation where they are targeting politicians or people they disagree with. They put everybody’s life in danger when they make these false calls.

I found it interesting that they used 311 instead of 911, and that tells me they are pretty savvy. Of course, 911 calls can be traced. 311 calls are a different story. You heard that the caller was very convincing, and it set up these officers. Everybody is in danger. The cops are in danger, and whoever is in that house is in danger.

These officers handled it textbook. They have to go under the impression that somebody has been shot in there. They are trying to announce. They are trying to knock. There is no answer. I thought the fact that they broke it open with a shovel showed that they used the tools at their disposal to make entry into the house.

But now look at it from the point of view of the homeowner. We do not know what they heard. They may have had music up loud. All of a sudden, they hear glass breaking, and they are going to defend themselves. There is a no-win situation here.

Whoever did this, I hope they find them and they spend the rest of their life in prison, because of what they did. This is a tragedy. Even the officers, think of what they are feeling like. They shot a homeowner. This is just a really tragic set of circumstances.

Speaker 1 – Host:
They got a voice on the bad guy. Going to prison for the rest of his life? I think he is getting off too well, Randy. These swatters normally do not expect it to go this route, but maybe they just do not care.

This should give everybody a pucker factor if they are thinking about doing something stupid like this. The repercussions and ramifications should be at the highest level. I agree. They need to make an example. If somebody thinks they want to be slick about this or think it is funny, no, it is not, man. They really need to make an example, and everybody needs to know that. I hope they find these guys.

Let me just say, if you are watching the show and you are somebody who thinks, like I have done, I have called my dispatch. I have the dispatch number on my phone. I call and have a conversation with them about expecting something like that to happen to me.

Anybody doing news content, especially conservative law enforcement, or if you are talking about politics, have a podcast, or are getting well-known doing some venue that people can have an issue with, especially along political lines, be proactive and take steps to prevent that from happening. There are things you can do by having your system flagged by police radio.

When anything goes on in reference to your address or your name, it is flagged immediately. They can read that note, even if the dispatcher has no idea who you are. They can say, “He called in and let us know there could be potential. He is a good target for a swatting call.” They will call and verify before the cops get there, try to make contact with you, and all kinds of stuff. There are things you can do to try to lower the potential for bad outcomes.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
Good on you for mentioning that, because I had no idea. It is good that people know that. I would not have known that. I did not know you could call in and put a little note.

Speaker 1 – Host:
It depends on where you are.

Speaker 3 – Scott Stier:
Maybe not if you are in Pima County.

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
I am not criticizing Pima County at all. These cops did what they were supposed to do.

Speaker 1 – Host:
The cops did. I am glad the sheriff did not get the call, but I am glad the cops are taking care of business and doing what they are doing very well.

Let’s jump over to Culver City, California, from Rumble.com and our favorite channel again, Butters. Suspect charged with several counts after hitting multiple pedestrians during a chase.

Speaker 5 – Video Audio:
Approximately one hour later, the vehicle was taken into pursuit through Culver City to downtown Los Angeles. The suspect collided this time.

The suspect, 45-year-old Juan Luis Estrada of Perris, California, has now been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office with 10 counts of attempted murder, carjacking, felony evading causing serious bodily injury, battery on a peace officer, and three counts of felony hit-and-run. The bail has been set at $10.25 million. Anyone who has additional information regarding...

Speaker 1 – Host:
I want people to be thinking about this. As cops and military, we do verbal pictures and scenarios in our heads all the time. I have got to tell you, I had never really run the scenario through my head, but I am now.

What do you do if you are in a cruiser, you are working, or maybe you are off duty, or maybe you are a civilian? I would say less likely for a civilian, and I do not necessarily expect them or really want them to get involved. But when certain things go down, you are kind of expecting, if it gets bad enough, that anybody would do whatever was necessary to stop this bad guy.

I am going to go back to Culver City, California. Culver City Police released a new video. It shows the disturbing moments that unfolded before they started chasing a carjacking suspect who hit a pedestrian.

Let me be clear and clarify. He was already doing this before they chased him. It is not something that happened just because the cops were chasing the bad guy. He was already doing this. Even if he is doing it during the chase, if they break the chase off, guess what? He is going to keep doing it. So it really does not matter to me at that point.

Estrada, 45 years old, of Perris, is facing more than a dozen charges as he is held. Listen to the bail amount: $10.25 million. That is like unheard of. See Randy smiling? He knows how rare that is. The judge did it right, and they know what is at stake here, especially if this guy gets out. He was arrested last week after allegedly carjacking a white Toyota Camry at knifepoint.

I have got to tell you, first flag, if I am going to carjack somebody, it is not going to be for a Toyota Camry. I am going to be getting that new Hummer EV that I wanted or something really bad. If I am going to be mowing people down, I am not going to be doing it in a Camry. If I am going to go out, I am going to go out in style.

Estrada, our bad guy who has poor taste in cars, was then involved in a hit-and-run crash at an intersection where he injured four pedestrians. There are so many video clips of him hitting people that it is ridiculous. They do not have shots of everybody, but he ran over so many people that there is this smorgasbord of videos on this thing.

Newly released video shows several of these people being hit by the car near a gas station in the area as well. Once the chase is underway, police say Estrada hit more pedestrians. The victims range in age from 15 years old to 70. The chase ended when Estrada crashed into a McDonald’s drive-through. That is how he goes out.

He has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of carjacking, one count of felony evading a peace officer causing serious bodily injury, battery on a LEO, and three counts of felony hit-and-run. He has a hearing next month, and they will determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial. I hope he is. I hope he goes to jail for the rest of his life, if not worse.

Randy Sutton?

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
Watching this is really disturbing. We have seen vehicular assaults increase, people using cars as weapons. Of course, we also know this is a favorite of terrorists as well. They will use anything they can. We have seen a lot of this in Europe, where they are using vehicles to engage in terrorist activities and driving into areas that have a lot of people.

This individual targeted people just walking down the street. How do you protect yourself against that? It is impossible. You have a punk like this who literally randomly runs people over. It is sickening. I wish they had not taken him alive, quite honestly. This guy should never see the light of day again.

Speaker 1 – Host:
Thank you. Scott, I am sorry, we are out of time.

Guys, thank you so much. Lieutenant Randy Sutton, The Wounded Blue, TheWoundedBlue.org; Scott Stier, retired Green Beret and Delta Force operative.

I do want to give Randy 15 seconds. TheWoundedBlue.org and the summit coming up.

Speaker 2 – Lieutenant Randy Sutton:
If you are a law enforcement officer, or you know a law enforcement officer and you love them, tell them about the sixth annual National Law Enforcement Survival Summit to be held in Las Vegas, September 28th through the 30th. Go to TWBSummit.com right now and sign up for it.

Speaker 1 – Host:
Love it.

Galls.com, ComplyTechnologies.com, GunLearn.com, MyMedicare.live, TwoBells.com. Do not forget the discount code for Galls: RADIO15. We will see you guys back tomorrow at 12 noon Eastern.