An Arizona man who warned police in advance that he might be targeted has filed a notice of claim seeking $176 million (£139 million) after deputies shot him during the very swatting response he had tried to prevent.
Swatting is the act of making a false report of a serious emergency, such as a shooting, hostage situation or bomb threat, to trigger an armed police or SWAT team response at a specific address.
The Warning That Wasn't Heeded
Axeel Melendez, now 24, was playing the online game Rust on 8 April when someone on the server asked to inspect his computer to prove he was not cheating. He agreed, and soon began receiving alerts that his accounts were being accessed.
According to the notice of claim, hackers gained control of his email and personal information, then demanded money while threatening to falsely report a bomb at his home and contact immigration authorities about his family, despite them being US citizens.
Less than 48 hours later, someone posing as Melendez called authorities via Tucson's non-emergency 311 line and falsely claimed his father had shot his sister.
According to the notice of claim, the call carried multiple red flags, including an invalid out-of-state number and inconsistent details. A deputy warned over the radio that it might be a swatting attempt.
Pima County Sheriff's deputies arrived, broke Melendez's bedroom window with a shovel, and opened fire when he picked up his mother's legally registered handgun. They fired eight shots and struck him twice, shattering his leg, breaking his ribs and damaging his spinal cord. He is now paralysed from the chest down with a T4 spinal cord injury.
He Did Everything He Was Supposed To Do
Melendez's attorney, Dev Sethi, said his client 'did everything he was supposed to do' by reporting the threats in advance. The notice of claim alleges deputies acted negligently and recklessly by failing to connect the emergency call with his earlier warning.
The filing seeks $80 million each for Melendez and the sheriff's department's alleged negligence from Pima County and the department itself, plus additional damages for his mother, who was present during the shooting, bringing the total to $176 million.
The notice of claim is the legally required first step before suing a public entity in Arizona. The Pima County Sheriff's Department has declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
The Rising Threat of Swatting
Swatting has become an increasingly visible threat across gaming and streaming communities, often used to harass or intimidate rivals before spreading to target celebrities, political figures and private individuals.
Recent cases include an 81-year-old Minecraft streamer targeted mid-broadcast and a separate incident in which a swatter mistakenly sent police to a Twitch streamer's grandparents. In one high-profile case, a man who swatted Grand Theft Auto V voice actor Ned Luke at least eight times over several years was sentenced in Washington, DC to four years in federal prison plus three years of supervised release.
Swatting is treated as a serious offence under both state and federal law in the United States, with perpetrators potentially facing felony charges depending on the outcome of the hoax.
Because swatters often use caller ID spoofing or non-emergency lines to disguise their identity, responding officers frequently have no way of confirming the report is fabricated until they arrive on scene, sometimes with fatal or life-altering consequences, as in Melendez's case.
The FBI has previously pledged to crack down on the practice, and courts have handed down real custodial sentences, underscoring that the legal risk for swatters is rising even as the tactic itself becomes more common.
For Melendez, the legal fight is just beginning. But his case has already put law enforcement on notice: ignoring a swatting warning can carry a price far higher than the department's insurance deductible. The question now is whether Pima County settles or forces a jury to decide.
