Two Phoenix police officers, who were accused of beating a couple and shocking them with a stun gun during an unreported traffic stop this month, have been fired and arrested on charges including kidnapping, aggravated assault and aggravated robbery, the police chief said on Saturday.
The officers, Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix, were on duty when they stopped the couple at about 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 5 in south Phoenix, Chief Matthew Giordano said at a news conference. Detectives have confirmed that the officers physically assaulted both the man and the woman, and the investigation showed that a Taser was used on them, he said.
Neither officer reported the stop or activated his body camera, and there is no video of the encounter, Chief Giordano said. The police have not determined why the officers stopped the couple or what motivated their actions, and there is no indication that they previously knew one another.
The episode was so unusual that the police in Tempe, Ariz., who learned of it after finding the couple’s abandoned car, initially suspected that the men might have been impersonating police officers.
“When I was first made aware of the situation, I had the same reaction,” Chief Giordano said. “There’s no way this could be Phoenix police officers. It’s so far outside the bounds of our policies.”
The Tempe police report describes a harrowing and violent encounter.
The man told the Tempe police that he and his girlfriend were parked in his mother’s Dodge Charger when they noticed a police S.U.V. nearby. After they drove off, the S.U.V. followed and pulled them over.
Two officers got out of the S.U.V., tried to open the Dodge’s doors and threatened to smash the driver’s-side window, the man told the Tempe police.
The couple repeatedly asked why they had been stopped, according to the police report. One officer reached into the car and unlocked the driver’s door as the other put the woman in an “arm bar” and threatened to break her arm if her boyfriend did not get out, and then shocked her in the thigh and back with a Taser, the report says.
After the woman was handcuffed and placed in the S.U.V., the man said the officers shocked him with a Taser, punched him repeatedly in the head and pulled his hair. One officer drew a gun and threatened to shoot him while counting down from three, prompting him to get out of the car, according to the report.
The man then jumped back into the car and sped away alone, leaving the woman with the officers, despite threats that he would be shot, according to the report. He said the car later overheated and he abandoned it in Tempe. The officers removed the woman’s handcuffs, told her, “We know where you live now,” and drove away, leaving her to walk home, according to the report.
The Tempe police found the Dodge the next day with a broken window and tires that smelled of burned rubber.
Chief Giordano thanked the Tempe police for finding the abandoned car and bringing the case to his department’s attention. He said the department had also begun a broader review to determine whether anyone else was involved and whether there were systemic problems.
There was no indication that other officers knew about the encounter, and no other officers had been placed on leave, Chief Giordano said. He also said that Mr. Vasquez and Mr. Felix had previous policy violations, though none were “of this nature.”
The former officers also face charges of felony assault involving a bound and otherwise physically restrained individual, threatening and intimidating, criminal damage, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.