8 July 30th - Aug 5th, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Off his meds The half of the DPS report that isn’t redacted includes summaries of interviews with Valenzuela and other officers on the scene, and neighbors and family members who called 911 from inside the home. It has lists of evidence collected at the scene and diagrams of the 55 shots fired in and around the house. It also includes notes from interviews with Garcia’s sister, Jenny, who arrived at the scene with her father 45 minutes after the chaos began. Around 6:18 p.m. on the evening of Jan. 26, Edgar Garcia arrived in his pickup truck with multiple guns at Rendon’s family home in Estrella Village. Garcia’s father was Rendon’s landlord and his family previously lived in the house. Garcia exited his truck, which was blasting music, and began firing rounds into the house. Garcia was searching for “Alex,” who did not exist and who he kept saying was “plotting to kill him.” Neighbors immediately started calling 911. Garcia then entered the house and continued firing, shooting one of Rendon’s children in the foot. While his family hid and called 911 themselves, Rendon tackled and disarmed Garcia. Valenzuela shot and killed Rendon not long afterward. Initial reports said that Garcia had a history of mental illness and thought someone in the house had a hit out on him. The newly released investigation gives more details into what happened in the lead-up to the tragic events that day. Garcia had been acting erratically and had gone off his medi- cations. And while the tragedy played out, his family had been trying to find him to get him help. In her interview with a DPS investigator, Jenny Garcia explained that her brother had been stable for about a year but recently went off his antipsychotic medications. The morning of the shooting, she’d called his psychiatrist at Terros Health for help. “She explained to the psychiatrist that Edgar had not slept in a couple of days, was behaving erratically, and was acting aggres- sively verbally toward her dad,” the report read. The psychiatrist told her that it was important she get him to take his medica- tions immediately and sent over a new prescription for her to fill. She filled it and tried to find him using an app that tracked his location. “But as soon as she reached where he was, Mr. Garcia would already be on his way to somewhere else,” the report read. Eventually, Jenny Garcia went to see her father. They checked the app together and saw that Garcia was at a property they recognized — a home they used to live in and that her father now rented out. When he didn’t move from that location for 30 minutes, they decided to go find him. They brought the medication with them. They arrived around 7 p.m. — about 45 minutes after Edgar first showed up. When they saw police officers, they knew some- thing was wrong. Jenny Garcia could not be reached for this story. ‘No one is going to disarm me’ Garcia was taken to the hospital because of the injuries he sustained from Rendon. The following day, DPS tried to hand him over to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to jail him, but the sheriff’s office refused to take custody because Garcia was still in an “altered mental state.” The sheriff’s office didn’t accept custody until two days later. A drug test found six substances in Garcia’s system: oxycodone, haloperidol, ketamine, methocarbamol, norketamine and quetiapine. Oxycodone and methocar- bamol are painkillers, while haloperidol and quetiapine are antipsychotics. Ketamine is often used for depression and pain. Norketamine is its metabolite, the substance ketamine breaks down into as it’s processed by the body. Edgar Garcia’s diagnosis and prescribed medications were redacted in the report, so it is unclear what he was prescribed. His sister told the investigators that he was tested regularly for drugs by his doctors “but had never tested positive for illegal drugs.” It is unclear how long Edgar had been off his medication. Patients who stop taking their antipsychotics can show symp- toms of psychosis within a couple of days. The day before the shooting, a Sunday, his mother confronted him, saying he “was not doing okay,” per the DPS report. Edgar agreed “and was trying to calm down.” His mother tried to contact his psychiatrist but had no luck. By the next day — the day of the incident — the window in which Garcia could be reasoned with had closed, Jenny Garcia told the investigators. “Edgar would not recog- nize that he needed help,” the report read. Edgar showed up at Rendon’s home with a loaded air pistol and three loaded firearms: a 12-gauge shotgun and two handguns. Arizona law does not prohibit someone on antipsychotics from possessing guns, though someone found by a court to be “mentally defective” can be barred from gun ownership. The family knew he had guns, his sister told investiga- tors. Earlier — the report did not specify when — her father had told him not to take them with him and to put them away. Edgar didn’t listen. “No one is going to disarm me,” Jenny recounted him responding. A sampling of the more than 350 fully redacted pages in the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s 922-page report on the Phoenix police killing of Christian Diaz Rendon. (Arizona Department of Public Safety) Brunch Boom from p 7
