A case of mistaken identity ended in a fatal Phoenix police shooting

Uriel J. Garcia | The Republic | azcentral.com

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article incorrectly described Henry Wayne Rivera. He had faded facial tattoos.

Natalie Mejia and Henry Wayne Rivera were in search of a better life.

In October 2018, they got on a bus in Blythe, California, and headed for Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they planned to raise their family.

But they didn't make it that far.

Mejia went into labor on the way, and the couple got off in Phoenix.

She gave birth to a boy and the family bounced from a hotel to an apartment and eventually to the Lamplighter Motel on Van Buren Street and 20th Avenue near the state Capitol, where they stayed for a couple of weeks.

The baby was about 4 months old when Phoenix police on March 13 mistook Rivera for murder and kidnapping suspect Eddison J. Noyola.

During a pursuit, Officers Andrew Carlsson and Kyle Fricke shot and killed the 30-year-old Rivera.

"It makes me angry because it’s not fair. It’s not just a little mistake," Mejia said through tears in a phone interview with The Arizona Republic. "They took his life. They took my kid's dad. They took my partner."

Rivera's was one of 14 police shootings so far this year for the Phoenix Police Department, which has been under intense scrutiny after a record-breaking number of shootings in 2018.

Last year, Phoenix police had 44 police shootings, more than any other municipal police department in the country.

The Rivera family has filed a $10 million claim against the city and Phoenix police.

Phoenix police recently released a 171-page report and aerial video footage depicting Rivera's shooting. It provides a clearer picture of what led to the mistaken identification.

Among the new details revealed in the report: Phoenix Officer Thomas Lannon had "put the information out over the radio for the other units involved" that Rivera was not Noyola.

But it's unclear if Lannon announced this before or after the officers shot Rivera, or whether anyone participating in the pursuit heard him.

Eddison Noyola was on the run

The day before Rivera was shot, Noyola was suspected of shooting three men — killing one, and kidnapping his ex-girlfriend.

According to the police, Noyola arrived at his sister and brother-in-law's house at 10 p.m. on March 12. He's accused of stealing a 9 mm Taurus handgun and a rented white 2018 Chevy Malibu sedan with Wisconsin plates. Noyola told his sister that his ex-girlfriend had been cheating on him, according to police.

After he stole the car and gun, police allege, Noyola shot two men at an apartment complex on 51st Avenue south of Thomas Road. One of them died.

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As police investigated that night, they received another call from someone saying that Noyola had shot a third man in the face at a different apartment complex about seven miles northeast, according to a police report.

There, police allege, Noyola kidnapped his ex-girlfriend. She later told police Noyola abandoned the vehicle and walked to his cousin's house in Glendale, according to a police report.

'I kind of freaked out'

The next day, on March 13, Phoenix police found the abandoned white 2018 Chevy Malibu that Noyola had been driving. It was parked near the Lamplighter Motel where Rivera and Mejia were staying.

Officers canvassed the area, asking motel customers and employees whether they had seen Noyola and the woman, showing them pictures of the two.

According to the photo released by police, Noyola had dark black tattoos on his neck and under both his eyes. The woman had tattoos on her forehead.

The Lamplighter Motel manager told officers that the man in the picture was in Room 108, where Rivera and Mejia actually were staying, according to the police report.

The two men are both Hispanic and of similar age and build. Rivera had faded tattoos above his eyebrow and near one eye. Mejia does not have any tattoos on her face.

The manager then stopped Mejia, who was walking back from a convenience store to her room, and told her police were looking for her boyfriend. Confused, Mejia walked to her room and asked Rivera if he knew why police wanted him for murder, she told The Republic.

Rivera "was in shock," Mejia said.

"I kind of freaked out, too. I told him, 'I don't know what you did, I don't know what happened, but you gotta go,'" Mejia said. "He started crying. He wanted me to believe him that he didn't hurt anybody."

Mejia said she did believe him.

Her initial idea was that the whole family should leave the motel, she said, because she was worried the children would see a confrontation between Rivera and the police. Her 4-year-old son was in the room, along with the 4-month-old baby.

"I didn't want my kids to see none of that," she said.

Eventually, they agreed Rivera would leave and Mejia and the kids would meet him later.

But before he could leave, police knocked on their door, some holding rifles, Mejia said. When she opened the door, the children began to cry, and Rivera jumped out of the bathroom window and ran, Mejia said.

A police helicopter pilot that had been hovering over the area alerted officers that Rivera was on the run, according to the police report.

Rivera, who jumped a fence into a mechanic shop, got into a vehicle parked there that had the keys inside and tried to flee police, according to the police report. But the vehicle stalled.

Video footage from the helicopter released to The Republic shows an officer firing one round from his ARWEN 37, a launcher that fires non-lethal rounds, into the rear passenger window.

Rivera got out of the vehicle and began to run away. Seconds later, Carlsson and Fricke shot Rivera, the video shows. He was faced away from them.

Helicopter footage of mistaken identity police shooting Police helicopter video footage shows officers shooting and killing Henry Rivera, whom they had mistakenfor a murder suspect.

Carlsson and Fricke later told detectives they saw Rivera turn his head back toward police and his right hand reach toward his waist, possibly for a gun, according to the police report.

After being shot, Rivera immediately fell to the ground. Carlsson released his K-9, which bit Rivera's leg before officers swarmed around and handcuffed him.

Rivera was taken to the hospital, where he died.

On March 14, a Glendale officer pulled over Noyola, who was driving a vehicle with his ex-girlfriend as the passenger. He was arrested and since has been charged with a slew of counts, including first-degree murder, kidnapping and burglary.

'He was not the suspect'

At the time they fired, both officers said in the police report, they were still under the impression that Rivera was an armed murder and kidnapping suspect.

Mejia told The Republic that officers showed her a picture of Noyola and she knew it was a case of mistaken identity. But as she explained that Rivera was not Noyola to an officer, she heard gunshots — presumably the moment police fired at Rivera, she told The Republic.

Phoenix police completed its investigation into the shooting. As is standard policy with all police shootings, the Police Department handed the case over to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which will determine whether the shooting was justified and if the two officers should face criminal charges.

According to an Arizona Republic analysis of police shootings between 2011 and 2018, Fricke has been involved in two other fatal shootings.

In August 2011, Fricke and Officer Emilio Rodriguez fatally shot 21-year-old Gabriel Jaramillo, a car burglary suspect. And in January 2016, Fricke and officers Andrew Austin and Nicholas Wolfenden shot and killed 39-year-old Levi Gene Wilson, who at the time police had described as being suicidal and armed.

'He wants his daddy'

Rivera's fatal shooting is the subject of a $10 million wrongful-death claim against the city and the police department. Such claims are a precursor to a lawsuit.

"Mr. Rivera had no apparent history of violent behavior. There was no evidence that he was armed," the claim says. "There was significant evidence that he was not the suspect they were pursuing."

Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman for Phoenix police, said he couldn't comment on the case because it's part of pending litigation.

Gail Barsky, the lawyer who filed the notice of claim on behalf of Rivera's family, questioned why police didn't do more to confirm if Noyola was actually in that hotel. She also questioned why police only relied on the hotel manager instead of finding out more about who was in Room 108.

"You know you're going to have a serious confrontation, so what level of an investigation did you do before going up to the room?" she said.

If Barksy wins a settlement, some of the money would go to Rivera's beneficiaries, including his mother and five children, the claim says. Before the couple met, Mejia already had a son and Rivera had three children. Together, they had one son.

"He was a good man," Mejia said. "He was a good dad. He was a good provider. He didn’t deserve to die."

Mejia has since moved to San Diego, where her dad lives and she works as a caregiver.

She said that she is still hurting. But she worries most about her children and how Rivera's killing will affect her baby.

"It’s not fair. Like me, I’m grown. But they f--ked up my son’s life," she said. "I see it every day. He starts crying; he wants his daddy."

Uriel Garcia covers public-safety issues in Arizona. Reach him at uriel.garcia@azcentral.com. Follow him on Twitter @ujohnnyg.