Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay was killed while serving an eviction at a Tucson apartment.

 Handout photo

The family of a woman who was killed in a mass shooting during an eviction at the Tucson apartment complex she managed has filed a $50 million claim against Pima County, saying the constable conducting the eviction was unqualified and the county was negligent in hiring and keeping her on the job.

Angela Heath-Fox, 28, accompanied the constable for the eviction of Gavin Lee Stansell, 24, from his residence at Lind Commons, an apartment complex near East Fort Lowell Road and North Dodge Boulevard, on Aug. 25, when Stansell opened fire. He shot and killed Heath-Fox, Deborah Martinez-Garibay, the constable, and Elijah Miranda, 25, a bystander, before turning the gun on himself.

Lawyers representing the family of Heath-Fox last month amended the claim they initially filed against the county citing new information in the case. Aside from Martinez-Garibay’s estate and the county, the notice also names the Pima County Board of Supervisors, the Pima County Constable’s Office, the Pima County Attorney’s Office and the Arizona Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board. A claim is a precursor to a lawsuit.

Not only was Pima County negligent in hiring Martinez-Garibay, it failed to remove her from the position after learning of ethical concerns and didn’t train her properly, the claim says. Supervisors were wrong to appoint Martinez-Garibay in March to fill a vacancy in Justice Precinct 8 because any amount of due diligence would have raised red flags about her qualifications, the claim reads.

Going back to October 2001, the notice of claim says Martinez-Garibay had more than 20 contacts with the police. While those contacts include matters in which she was the complainant, the claim said the number of interactions “demonstrates a clear lack of judgement and temperament which should be a prerequisite for the appointment to such an important position.” It then details various altercations involving Martinez-Garibay.

“This is not a situation where the community elected an unfit representative and must collectively live with its choice,” the notice of claim reads. “Rather, just like any other position posted by the county, Ms. Martinez-Garibay applied for the job and was chosen by the county over other candidates. The county put Constable Martinez-Garibay into this position without vetting her properly, failed to train her properly, and then kept her in this position when concerns were raised about her fitness to do the job and exposed the public to an unreasonable risk.”

Prior to the deadly shooting, Martinez-Garibay was facing accusations of falsifying petition signatures in her effort to make the ballot, the Arizona Daily Star previously reported. It was also alleged that Martinez-Garibay didn’t live in the precinct in which she was running for election.

The Lind Commons apartments in Tucson where Pima County Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay, Angela Heath-Fox and Elijah Miranda were shot and killed on August 25, 2022.

The notice of claim cites these allegations, saying the county had this information but failed to act and continued to allow her to conduct her duties without restrictions. It also said the Arizona Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board, whose duty is to investigate unethical conduct of constables, did nothing because it “failed its statutory duty” or because the county did not refer the matter to them.

Further, the claim states that Martinez-Garibay already had issues in the short time that she worked as a constable. The claims says she had been involved in evictions involving threats or physical altercations during her stint on the job.

A couple months before the shooting, Martinez-Garibay along with another constable were reprimanded by Tucson police for conducting an unsafe eviction, the notice of claim said. Officers at the scene had a blunt conversation with the two constables and expressed their concern about their equipment and tactics. They told the constables they were operating in “unsafe conditions and expressed serious concerns that they will be ambushed inside a residence,” the claim says.

In July, Martinez-Garibay was involved in another eviction that involved a physical altercation. She claimed the person being evicted was the aggressor. The person then made a cross-complaint about Martinez-Garibay, claiming she was the aggressor and had used excessive force, the notice of claim said.

Two months later, another eviction she was serving turned physical.

The complaints show that she had an “inability to safely deescalate tense and volatile situations,” the claim says.

On the day of the shooting, the notice of claim states that even though it was known that Stansell had threatened another resident with a firearm, Martinez-Garibay apparently made no effort to call for police backup. She also was not carrying her gun, which was found in her car after the shooting.

At the time of the shooting, Martinez-Garibay had not received mandatory training that constables must attend within six months of their election, the claim says.

“She entered a known dangerous situation without any means of protecting herself or others and brought an innocent individual squarely in harm’s way,” the claim reads. “It is inconceivable that under the circumstances Ms. Martinez-Garibay would not retrieve the keys from Ms. Fox and have her stay well out of harm’s way while she cleared the apartment. Of course, she did not do that. She had Ms. Fox directly outside of Mr. Stansell ‘s apartment while she attempted to affect the eviction.”

Martinez-Garibay’s toxicology report also showed that she had illicit drugs, including amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine and alcohol, in her system at the time of the autopsy, the claim said.

“The county was put on notice of ongoing ethics and fraud issues pertaining to Ms. Martinez-Garibay and again did nothing,” the notice of claim said. “The county was put on notice of on-the-job complaints that foreshadowed this exact tragedy and again did nothing. This was a failure 20 years in the making and all of the information needed to prevent this tragedy from occurring in the manner it did was readily available to the County.”

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Jamie Donnelly covers breaking news for the Arizona Daily Star. Contact her via e-mail at jdonnelly@tucson.com