Phoenix Cop Shoots, Kills Man Holding Machete To Woman’s Throat

Around 8:10 p.m. on Oct. 11, Phoenix police officer Kyle Drake pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex near 83rd Avenue and Indian School Road. He exited the car to find a man pinning a woman to the ground outside an apartment, holding a machete to her neck. Within seconds, Drake shot and killed the man, identified as 47-year-old Francisco Aviles Barcenas, putting three to four bullets in his head at point-blank range and possibly saving the woman’s life.

Barcenas was the 10th person killed by Phoenix police this year, putting the department on pace for 12 fatal shootings in 2025. That would match its total from 2023; last year, Phoenix cops shot and killed 14 people. The killing of Barcenas was also the sixth fatal police shooting since Aug. 19.

Body-worn camera footage of the Barcenas shooting was released Friday as part of a “critical incident briefing.” The briefings are narrated by public information officers and generally contain snippets of body-cam footage, dispatch audio and images. Via a records request, Phoenix New Times also obtained longer videos from the body cams of Drake and another officer who responded to the scene. As of yet, police have not provided an incident report, which is sometimes made available after police shootings.

The briefing states that police received multiple 911 calls from people who said a man was fighting and punching a woman outside an apartment, with her three children inside. “I’ve got a guy threatening to beat the crap out of his wife,” one caller said. “He’s got a machete.” The caller added that the man had been harassing the woman and that he was using the machete to block anyone from entering the apartment. A second caller reported that the man was also threatening people who were calling 911.

Drake’s body-cam footage shows he arrived at the complex at 8:11 p.m. “They’re in a fight,” he told a dispatcher as he exited his car and immediately ran toward a first-floor apartment. Outside the door, a man could be seen on top of a woman and pinning her to the ground, and police said he was holding a machete to her throat. Though the briefing video highlighted the weapon, it is hard to make out in the grainy footage. Police said they recovered a large black knife after the shooting.

“Hey! Get the fuck off of her! Get off of her now!” Drake yelled, advancing with his service pistol drawn. A second later, he fired five shots at close range, hitting Barcenas in the head. Screaming, the woman escaped from under him and ran down the parking lot. In extended body-cam footage provided to New Times, Drake could be heard telling another officer that he was nearly close enough to put the muzzle of his gun to Barcenas’ head.

“Almost a contact shot,” Drake said. “He put his head in front of her, so I had to rotate my handgun to make sure she wasn’t in the backdrop.”

Under investigation

For minutes after the shooting, Drake remained trained with his weapon on Barcenas as another officer cleared the apartment, the door to which was open. Inside were the woman’s three children. No officers moved to assist Barcenas, though that may be because he was already evidently dead. New Times has requested the medical examiner’s report on his death but has not received it.

The body-cam footage shows the shooting seemed to have shaken Drake, who could be heard breathing heavily for several minutes after. When a neighbor approached him to try to provide more information on the fight between Barcenas and the woman, he gave her a polite if exasperated brush-off: “Ma’am… just give me a sec, OK?”

At several points after the shooting, Drake asked about the condition of the woman, who could be heard wailing in the immediate aftermath. He told other officers that he was concerned she’d been clipped by a bullet or cut by the machete during the altercation. Police said the woman, who has not been publicly identified, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released at the scene.

Police said Drake has six years of law enforcement experience, less than a year of which has been with the Phoenix police department. An Instagram post suggests he came to the department from the Peoria Police Department, and a Facebook post suggests he began his law enforcement career in DuPont, Washington. Public Phoenix police databases show no other use-of-force incidents or officer-involved shootings associated with Drake’s badge number. New Times could not immediately determine whether he has been involved in shootings at his previous stops.

The shooting of Barcenas is being investigated by the Major Incidents Division of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will determine if criminal charges are warranted, and Phoenix police will conduct their own internal review of whether the shooting aligned with department policies. Police have yet to find that an officer-involved shooting was outside of policy in 2025