The call for help went out from Mesa's Pioneer Park. On the evening of Jan. 10, city park rangers were in trouble and needed police. They were brawling with an unhoused man in a bathroom when the man reached into a backpack, pulled out a handgun and fired.

The resulting police report, and other city documents obtained by public records requests, detail what happened that night. The incident spotlighted a troubled team that struggled with violent encounters, handling them in ways that made police officers question rangers' use of force and their honesty. Some of those warnings reached their department directors and their bosses in the city manager's office.

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