US News
Two Phoenix police officers fired and arrested after violent, unreported traffic stop
Former officers Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez face charges including kidnapping and aggravated assault following an off-camera August 5 incident.
The short version
- Phoenix police fired and arrested officers Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez over an unrecorded August 5 traffic stop where they allegedly assaulted and Tased a man and woman.
- The stop was never officially logged, body-worn cameras were turned off, and the incident was initially suspected by neighboring Tempe police to be an attempted carjacking by impersonators.
- Investigators utilized municipal automatic vehicle locator records to link the officers to the scene of the incident.
- Vasquez has been released from custody while Felix remains jailed, with both scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
Key facts
- Phoenix Police Chief Matt Giordano announced the firing and arrest of officers Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez on charges including aggravated assault and kidnapping.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- The former officers failed to document the August 5 stop and did not turn on their body-worn cameras.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- According to police statements, the officers broke a vehicle window, punched the male driver, threatened to shoot him, handcuffed the female passenger, and deployed a Taser on both occupants.[Associated Press]
- Investigators established probable cause connecting the officers to the stop using automatic vehicle locator data from a city vehicle.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- Vasquez was released from custody, while Felix remained detained at the Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix ahead of a scheduled Friday court date.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- Vasquez and Felix served eight and nine years with the department respectively, and both had prior policy violations on their records.[Associated Press]
What remains uncertain
- Legal representation for Felix and Vasquez was not immediately identified, leaving their formal defense responses unrecorded.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- The initial reason the officers initiated the traffic stop remains unknown, as they gave no explanation to the occupants or department logs.[Associated Press]