GILBERT, Ariz. — A man swiped at an officer’s rifle before retreating into a bedroom and lunging at an officer with a long metal object, according to a newly released Gilbert Police Department briefing.
The incident happened on Aug. 1 on South Lindsay Road after dispatchers received two related 911 calls. The first caller reported hearing screaming during a phone call with a friend. A second caller told dispatchers someone had killed her boyfriend.
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The first officers arrived approximately four minutes after the initial call. They approached a detached residence behind the main home, where they heard a woman screaming for help and saw broken windows and a shattered sliding glass door, police said.
Two uniformed officers came across a man, identified as Brett Eschliman, at the damaged doorway and ordered him to get on the ground. According to police, he lunged toward an officer and swiped at the officer’s rifle, then moved back inside, where two victims were located.
A smear of blood was found near the muzzle of the officer’s rifle, police said.
Eschliman retreated into a bedroom and moved out of the officer’s view, police said. As the officer entered, body camera video shows Eschliman lunging toward him with a long metal object directed at the officer’s head and neck.
The officer fired two rifle rounds, striking Eschliman twice, according to the department.
Officers handcuffed Eschliman and provided aid to him and the three victims on the property. Eschliman was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:24 p.m.
Investigators determined that four people who knew one another had gathered at the property that evening and taken psychedelic mushrooms, police said.
According to the department, Eschliman stabbed and shot a male victim inside the detached residence, then went to the fifth-wheel trailer where he lived and attacked a woman. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds and more than a dozen stab wounds.
He then returned to the detached residence and attacked another woman, stabbing her multiple times and striking her with a firearm, police said.
Before he returned, the surviving woman hid a rifle she found in a bedroom closet. Police said Eschliman later retreated into that same closet during the encounter with officers.
The male victim died at the scene. The woman attacked in the trailer died after being transported for treatment. The third victim, who called 911, survived.
Police recovered an aluminum mop handle, a handgun, a rifle and two knives from the property.
The Mesa Police Department is leading the East Valley Critical Incident Response Team investigation.
