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Phoenix police officers used unreported force, including a taser, on a stopped couple and filed no report

On August 5, 2026, Phoenix police officers Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix stopped a Dodge Charger near 19th Avenue and Broadway Road in south Phoenix and used force -- including a stun gun, an arm bar, and repeated punches -- against the man and woman inside, without activating their body-worn cameras or filing a required use-of-force report. The stop surfaced only after one victim escaped and reached Tempe police, whose officers found the account so extreme they initially suspected the assailants were impersonating police rather than being real officers. Phoenix's own investigation later confirmed both were on-duty officers.

Jurisdiction
Phoenix
Location
Phoenix, Arizona

Abuses documented

Actors

  • Luis Vasquez Jr. (Phoenix Police Officer)
  • Antonio Felix (Phoenix Police Officer)
  • Phoenix Police Department

On August 5, 2026, around 11:30 p.m., Phoenix police officers Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix stopped a Dodge Charger near 19th Avenue and Broadway Road in south Phoenix, driving a vehicle resembling an older-model police SUV with spotlights, a blue stripe, and "POLICE" lettering. The stop turned violent: the woman was put in an arm bar, shocked with a stun gun, and handcuffed; the man was repeatedly punched, shocked with a stun gun, and at one point threatened with a gun. He eventually drove away from the scene. Neither officer activated a body-worn camera or filed the use-of-force report Phoenix Police policy requires, so the encounter left no departmental record of its own.

The stop came to light only because the couple, believing they had been stopped by real police, led Tempe Police to receive a call about a disabled vehicle and spoke with the man, who recounted what happened. The account was violent and disjointed enough that a Tempe officer suspected the pair might instead have been victims of an attempted carjacking by people impersonating police, and checked with neighboring agencies to identify who had conducted the stop -- no agency, including Phoenix, initially reported pulling the car over. That inquiry is what led Phoenix police to determine two of its own officers were involved.

Updates

2026-08-13 — Phoenix Police placed both officers on administrative leave [2]

Phoenix Police placed Vasquez and Felix on administrative leave on August 13, 2026, as its internal investigation into the stop proceeded.

2026-08-18 — Tempe's report went public; Phoenix Police confirmed its officers' role [3]

A Tempe Police report detailing the victims' account became public, and Phoenix Police confirmed on the record that two of its officers had conducted the traffic stop, though it declined at the time to name them while the criminal investigation continued.

2026-08-21 — State lawmakers demanded a third-party investigation [4]

Arizona state Sen. Catherine Miranda and Reps. Junelle Cavero and Oscar De Los Santos sent Phoenix city and police leadership a letter demanding an outside third-party investigation, disclosure of the officers' disciplinary histories, and an explanation for why body cameras were not activated.

2026-08-22 — Phoenix Police arrested and fired both officers on felony charges [2]

Phoenix Police Chief Matt Giordano announced that detectives had confirmed the two former officers physically assaulted both victims and used a taser on them during the stop. Both were arrested on several felony charges -- including aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, threatening and intimidating, criminal damage, hindering prosecution, and tampering with evidence -- and fired from the department. Officials said there is no video evidence of the assault, but confirmed via the department's vehicle-locator system that both officers were on duty in a marked unit at the time. Both gave voluntary statements in the presence of counsel.

Why we recorded this

Legitimate policing depends on force being documented and accountable, not discretionary and hidden. Two Phoenix officers used a taser and physical force on a stopped couple, then filed no use-of-force report and never activated their body cameras -- the encounter would have gone entirely undocumented had the victims not reached a neighboring department, whose officers suspected from the account alone that the assailants had to be impersonating police. This archive records force that was deliberately kept off the record, and that surfaced only by accident rather than through the reporting systems meant to catch it.

Sources

  1. Two Phoenix Police Officers Fired and Arrested After Violent Traffic Stop — The New York Times primary accessed August 23, 2026
  2. Two Phoenix PD cops arrested and fired amid criminal investigation into violent, unreported traffic stop — ABC15 Arizona primary accessed August 23, 2026
  3. No body cameras, no force report: Phoenix officers now under investigation — AZFamily primary accessed August 23, 2026
  4. Lawmakers join forces putting pressure on Phoenix PD amid criminal investigation — ABC15 Arizona primary accessed August 23, 2026

See also