Anaheim cop in fatal shooting also sued for excessive force in a minor’s arrest
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Officer Nathan Garcia, whose identity was shielded by the Anaheim Police Department for months after he fatally shot Alberto Arzola last year, is alleged to have used excessive force in another federal lawsuit over a minor’s arrest.
Family members and activists had doggedly demanded the release of Garcia’s name at Anaheim City Council meetings in the wake of the Dec. 6 police shooting that left Arzola, 19, dead in front of his home.
Despite demands, city officials did not identify Garcia as the officer in question. Anaheim PD similarly withheld his name from disclosure through a TimesOC public records request, citing an unspecified threat.
The name of the Anaheim police officer who shot and killed Alberto Arzola, 19, during a December encounter is being withheld from TimesOC on the grounds of unspecified threats.
But attorneys representing the Arzola family learned of Garcia’s identity on April 21.
“Anaheim is obligated under federal law to disclose that information,” said V. James DeSimone, an attorney on the case. “It wasn’t a formal discovery. It was given to us in an email that the shooting officer’s name is Nathan Garcia, confirmed by the opposing counsel who’s representing the city.”
That same evening at a meeting of the City Council, activists had sounded the call for more transparency about the shooting.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken asked City Atty. Rob Fabela for an update during the April 21 meeting. He announced that the Arzola family learned of the officer’s name through their attorneys, but Fabela did not himself publicly disclose it.
Police had previously said that a gang suppression unit on patrol attempted to contact Arzola and others that night on suspicion of graffiti vandalism. The group fled on foot as officers gave chase.
Arzola attempted to enter his home on Philadelphia Street when an officer pulled him out to the front yard.
Police claimed Arzola “produced” a gun before he was shot and the weapon was recovered at the scene.
In the federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Arzola’s parents, attorneys argued that “despite the absence of any immediate threat of death or serious bodily harm,” the officer shot Arzola multiple times in his “neck and back.”
The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the Arzola shooting. Garcia doesn’t appear to be named in any completed investigations of past police shootings by that office, nor by the state attorney general’s office.
But he is named in a recent federal lawsuit that alleges excessive force was used in the arrest of a 14-year-old boy in Anaheim.
Filed in late February, the suit claimed that Garcia and Officer Kyle Smith stopped the boy on June 27, 2024 as he rode his bike home after shopping for bike parts at a nearby strip mall.
The teen, who is described as a Latino with no prior arrests, allegedly tried to stand and raise his hands when an “unprovoked and brutal” assault followed.
After being tackled from the sidewalk to an asphalt parking lot, the suit claimed both officers repeatedly drove their knees into the teen’s back and “violently” pulled his arm.
“I am not resisting,” he pleaded, according to court documents.
Attorneys from McKenzie Scott PC, a San Diego-based civil rights firm, charge that Garcia failed to intervene as obligated by department policy when Smith turned the teen on his back and struck his genitals. The suit further claimed that both officers cuffed the 14-year-old so tightly that he lost feeling in his hands, and that they later laughed at his distress.
Officers released the boy to his mother in an attempt to “dissuade” him from seeking transfer to a hospital, the suit argued. His mother took him anyway. Attorneys claim that the rough arrest caused him injuries, including a fractured shoulder.
The boy was given a notice to appear in court for resisting arrest and illegally operating a pocket bike, but the suit argued that the officers “fabricated evidence” and falsely accused him of crimes as a cover for their use of excessive force.
The Santa Ana P.D. provided a limited report to the City Council about how it enforced protests against immigration raids. Councilmembers asked critical questions about tactics it used.
Both parties quickly reached a settlement by April, but terms are still being finalized with no sum to be reported at this time. The process winds down a legal fight that first began as a tort claim a year before the Arzola shooting.
“Officer Garcia, while on scene, did not play a leading role in this incident,” said Mike Lyster, a city spokesperson, of the excessive force lawsuit. “Every case is evaluated individually, and there is no connection to any other matter.”
DeSimone called the excessive force allegations “troubling” as he continues to represent Arzola’s parents in court.
“You can’t feel safe in front of your house and a kid can’t feel safe riding his bike,” he said in reference to both cases. “It’s a pattern of harassment against a vulnerable community.”
With Garcia’s identity now known, attorneys are updating the Arzola civil suit to name him as a defendant, according to DeSimone
