First, to clarify that title: I’m told Kyle Smith was NOT Officer Nathan Garcia‘s partner on the night of December 6 when Garcia shot and killed Albert Arzola. We’ll call Garcia’s partner THAT night “Officer X” for now. Officer X was driving the unmarked vehicle and followed the hot-headed Garcia onto the Arzolas’ front yard. Officer X allegedly did not turn on his bodycam, which is why we have nothing but Garcia’s jumbled and silent footage to see (along with some blurry video from across the street.) Still, Kyle Smith HAD been Garcia’s partner in a different critical incident two years ago, and we remember Kyle well on Anna Drive – we’ll get to that later.

But finally, after five months of bugging, we do know the identity of 19-year old Arzola’s killer – Officer Nathan Garcia. So now at least we can fill in THAT blank:

• As Officers X and Nathan Garcia drove an unmarked vehicle with tinted windows down South Philadelphia street on the night of Dec. 6, 2025, they saw a young man tagging graffiti on a wall; at the same time, maybe 30 feet away, Albert was walking home from work, and for some reason the cops followed Albert home.
• As Albert reached his front porch Garcia jumped out of the car and ran up to the porch with his gun pointed.
• For some unknown reason, Garcia quickly shot Albert 2 or 3 times, fatally, within seconds of exiting the vehicle – the sound recording still hadn’t clicked on on Garcia’s bodycam.
• Witnesses say that Garcia had tumbled down the porch steps backwards just before firing, which is sure how that chaotic footage looks.
• (Also, a gun was “found near Albert’s body” after they dragged him to the lawn, but nobody claims he was holding or brandishing it.)

We still don’t know:

• The identity of the driver, Officer X, who allegedly never turned on his bodycam;
• The identity of the officer who shot Albert’s cousin Emmanuel Cordova in the head with a rubber bullet ten minutes later;
• Who was responsible for the abuse of the small children, “detained” for hours on the sidewalk as “part of the investigation” and forced to urinate in public;
• and the family and public have still not seen Albert’s autopsy.

I do have something else to add to Gabriel San Roman’s LA Times article though, on the topic of:

Why did it take five months to release Nathan Garcia’s name?

Five months is way longer than it ever takes (these days) to learn the name of an Anaheim cop who’s been “involved in an officer-involved shooting.” The family and public have been trying to at least get the shooter’s name since last December. The excuse offered by APD and the City was that the officer was in danger and had received “threats” – something hard to believe. None of us knew anyone who would have “threatened” this cop, and an earlier Times story from February cast doubt on this unnamed “threat” pretext, quoting attorney Kelly Aviles:

“There has to be a specific threat… The Anaheim Police Department has to be able to justify why they can’t publicly disclose an officer’s name. They have the burden to demonstrate that.”

And then finally, in the late hours of April 21 (as announced at Council that evening) Garcia’s name was suddenly e-mailed to the Arzolas’ attorney. Had the “threat” been neutralized somehow?

Well, check it out: We learned from Gabriel’s May 4 story that a lawsuit naming Garcia and his partner Kyle Smith for using EXCESSIVE FORCE against a 14-year old, in a separate 2024 incident, had just been settled. Look that lawsuit up: IT WAS SETTLED ON APRIL 22. Do you still think that vague, unnamed “threats” against Garcia were the reason for the five-month delay?

OCCAM’S RAZOR SAYS: Garcia’s name wasn’t released till the moment that excessive force case was settled, so that the unnamed 14-year old’s family wouldn’t know that Nathan Garcia had gone on to kill a 19-year old, which might have been something helpful to consider in their case. You think?

Kyle and Nathan’s 2024 Excessive Force Incident

Gabriel goes into detail describing the allegations of this June 2024 excessive force incident, against a 14-year old Latino with no prior arrests riding his bike – just the kind of so-called innocent teenager that really pisses off Kyle and Nathan! According to the suit (which was quietly settled) the teen tried to put his hands up but Officers Kyle and Nathan threw him off his bike to the asphalt, took turns pressing their knees into his back, and fractured his shoulder; Officer Kyle punched him in the genitals while Officer Nathan did nothing to stop him, while all the while the boy cried “I am not resisting!”

Then, not wanting to bring the boy to the hospital, they took him to his mother, who took him to the hospital anyway for his injuries. To justify their violence, they fabricated some phony charge of the kid “illegally operating a pocket bike.” But the city ended up settling the suit, for we-don’t-yet-know-how-much of our taxpayer money.

Hey, we don’t know this Nathan Garcia, but we DO know Kyle Smith on Anna Drive, and this sounds like him!

Kyle Smith

For several months not long ago – maybe 2024-5 – the Anna Drive neighborhood was harassed regularly by APD, for no apparent reason. A few times a week, many many times, generally between 7-10 pm, cops would barge into our courtyard while our young teenage boys were sitting around talking and looking at their phones, start questioning them, accusing them of things, sometimes insulting them, sometimes with guns in hand. The kids didn’t deserve it, it stressed out the whole neighborhood, it added to distrust and hostility to the cops, who also probably had better things they coulda been doing elsewhere. Eventually this stopped after we all complained too many times – complained WITH VIDEOS!

The rudest cop, who just always seemed to be looking to start trouble, was Kyle Smith. With his sad-sack visage and his Wilford Brimley moustache. So it’s not surprising to learn of his excessive force on a 14-year old elsewhere around that time.

We remember the time he was harassing a 13-year old (almost 14) who was just sitting on the font lawn around 7pm waiting for his friend to come out. A young mother heard Kyle through her window, questioning and insulting the kid, at one point accusing him of sitting on the lawn “because he didn’t have a dad.” (A false statement but cruel and racist nonetheless.)

At that point Kyle didn’t have his bodycam on (which they’re supposed to when they interact with the public) but then he left and came back with it on. This time he wanted to search the boy for a gun, claiming (ridiculously) that he resembled a suspect who’d robbed a liquor store. He also tried “Is that your bike over there? I’m gonna give you a ticket for not having a light on it!” (Wasn’t even his bike and he wasn’t riding it.)

The mother, overhearing all this, came out to keep an eye on things, as one does on Anna Drive. Kyle told her to mind her own business. She asked, “Did you call this boy’s parents?” “No, I don’t need to, he looks SUSPICIOUS.” “I’m going to stand here and watch.”

More witnesses started to come out, some of them filming – it’s Anna Drive after all, and Kyle started getting really uptight. He threatened to detain the mother for obstruction, although she was a good ten feet away. He tried to grab her hand. “I TOLD you to go back inside! WHY DO YOU WANT TO DEFEND SOMEBODY WHO HAS NO FUTURE?”

Kyle’s rage shifted to the mother, he grabbed her from behind, choked her, knocked her down, cuffed her, and then called for backup. When the other cops showed up he told them that she had hit him; no doubt she was struggling as one does when one hasn’t had “nonviolent resistance training” and aren’t being legit arrested for anything.

The mother spent the night in jail till 3 or 4 in the morning, but at least she’d gotten Kyle’s wrath off the kid. Justice was not served. The bodycam footage did NOT show the mother hitting Kyle, but still she had to pay a lawyer, take anger management classes, and pay a $100 court fee.

Not long after all that, while the neighborhood was still mad about it, Kyle and a partner Noe Garcia followed another young man home, just coming home from work at night (like Albert Arzola was!) And THIS young man, knowing his rights, began filming and so we have this:

Okay, before there is any confusion here (like our confusion at first) Kyle’s partner here is NOE Garcia, NOT Kyle’s later partner NATHAN Garcia, the killer of Albert Arzola. Also not to be confused Officer with David Garcia who killed Marcel Ceja in 2011. Too many Officer Garcias! Noe hasn’t killed anyone that we know of and we hope it stays that way.

But listen to Kyle. “You’re wearing the wrong hat.” (What?? You can wear whatever hat you want here.) “Do you know what neighborhood this is? You’re gonna get yourself shot. Are you suicidal?” (They love to say that.) The young man brings up the recent incident with the kid, and Kyle makes up lies about him. Kyle repeats to someone else, “This guy is wearing the wrong hat, he’s gonna get shot.” To which the young man replies “I got more of a chance of getting shot by you.”

It may be this video that finally got Kyle removed from our neighborhood. But we regret that he went on to find a WORSE Garcia to partner with, and beat up another innocent 14-year old. And lie about him, and cost us taxpayers money. Kyle Smith and Nathan Garcia, the killer of Albert Arzola, are still patrolling the streets of Anaheim, paid by us taxpayers, and they should NOT be.

Previous stories on the Arzola Killing:

• 19-year old Albert Arzola Killed by Anaheim Police Last Night
• THE SCARY GUN: APD responds to my Albert Arzola Story.
• Arzola pt. 3, more videos: “Informational Meeting,” Critical Incident Report.