Arizona gamer paralyzed after Rust swatting incident leads to gunfire

Axeel Melendez says he warned 911 that he might be swatted before a Rust-related dispute spiraled into a police shooting that left him paralyzed from the chest down. According to the claim, the trouble began on April 8 when a server user asked to inspect his computer to prove he was not cheating, Melendez agreed, and the situation quickly escalated into threats, police calls, and gunfire.

Melendez was soon getting alerts that several of his accounts were being accessed, and the attackers allegedly obtained his email and private information. They then demanded money and threatened to make false reports about a bomb and contact immigration authorities. When Melendez called 911 to warn that he could be swatted, a dispatcher tried to calm him down:

Less than 48 hours later, someone posing as Melendez called authorities and claimed that his father had shot his sister. Deputies arrived at the home, tried the doors, and then broke Melendez's bedroom window with a shovel. Once inside the house, they fired eight shots, and two rounds struck Melendez, shattering his leg, breaking his ribs and damaging his spinal cord. He survived, but the injury left him paralyzed from the chest down.

He and his mother have now filed a notice of claim seeking $176 million from Pima County and the Pima County Sheriff's Department, while attorney Dev Sethi says Melendez

. The claim argues that authorities ignored the warning signs and turned a preventable situation into a life-changing injury.

Do police need to take swatting warnings more seriously after a case like this?