A Rust player left paralyzed by cops in a swatting incident is now suing the police for $176 million.
Back in April of this year, 23-year-old Tucson resident Axeel Melendez was shot in his leg and spine by two officers who stormed into his house via his bedroom window. The cops were responding to a false report of an active shooter in the building — despite Melendez previously warning their unit that he was being targeted by a potential swatter.
Melendez will likely remain paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life, and is now seeking damages for his medical expenses and wage losses.
Just two days before, Melendez had been hacked by another player of the survival game Rust, who accessed personal details on his computer and then demanded money not to release them publicly. Melendez didn’t pay, and was then threatened with swatting — a practice where armed law enforcement is called to an address under false pretences.
Concerned for his safety, Melendez called 911 to report the threats and alert cops that his address could be swatted.
“They said that they were going to call the police station and say that I have a bomb so that FBI shows up at my house so I could get swatted,” Melendez told a 911 responder, in a tape of the call reported by the Arizona Daily Star. “They knew my ethnicity, so they said that they were going to call ICE to show up at my house and get my whole family deported. We’re all citizens, so it’s okay.”
In response, Melendez was told that a hoax caller “can’t just call the SWAT on you” and that “nothing is going to happen.”
An officer even visited Melendez’s house to offer further reassurance, and state that deputies had been informed to be aware of fake emergency calls regarding his address. Regardless, just two days later, cops responded to a report that Melendez’s father had shot his sister, and stormed the house with guns drawn.
Police video of the incident released into the public domain shows officers shouting from outside the house that they are from the sheriff’s department, before giving up and using a shovel to smash Melendez’s bedroom window. Seeing the end of Melendez’s shotgun being pointed in their direction from behind a door, the officers open fire.
Melendez has said he was wearing noise-cancelling headphones to play games when the cops were outside, and only realized that someone was entering the house when his window was smashed. He then ran to wake his sleeping mother, and grabbed the family’s legally-owned gun.
“My goal was to get some experience working on highline cars and then more advanced education in automotive engineering,” Melendez said, reflecting on his life before he was paralyzed. “I really wanted to work on an F1 engineering team. I love soccer, and I enjoy reading and board games. I liked to be active and do stuff outside.”
Local police have declined to comment on the matter further.
Swatting has sadly become a relatively common practice, and numerous video game fans who play or stream online have fallen victim. Grand Theft Auto 5 actor Ned Luke has been targeted numerous times, and recently celebrated one swatter finally receiving jail time.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
