Docs released on the Aug. 5 traffic stop show Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez Jr. were fired, arrested and charged after a violent encounter in south Phoenix. The former Phoenix police officers were booked Saturday night and face multiple felony charges tied to the stop.
Matt Giordano called the conduct “egregious criminal conduct.” The charges listed for Felix and Vasquez include aggravated assault, kidnapping, tampering with physical evidence, hindering prosecution and threatening and intimidating.
Aug. 5 traffic stop
The encounter began just after 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, when Vasquez and Felix were driving an unmarked Phoenix police Tahoe and began following a Dodge Charger in south Phoenix. The officers made intermittent overhead light and siren activations that investigators described as inconsistent with standard police traffic stop practices.
When the Charger stopped near 15th Avenue and Broadway Road, the patrol vehicle struck the rear bumper of the car. Detectives later found damage on the Charger’s bumper matching the push bars on a Phoenix police Tahoe.
Felix and Vasquez
Felix and Vasquez approached the vehicle, with Vasquez on the driver’s side and Felix on the passenger’s side. The paperwork says they threatened to break a window if the two occupants did not get out. When the driver rolled his window down only slightly, Vasquez allegedly grabbed and bent it until it broke and then reached in and unlocked the doors.
Felix allegedly grabbed the woman in the passenger seat and threatened to break her arm if she did not get out. He allegedly used a Taser on her multiple times, and the forensic download showed six safety activations and 29 electrical discharge events during the encounter.
Vasquez allegedly punched the driver repeatedly in the head, face, eyes, nose and groin. Felix allegedly pressed a Taser against the driver’s arm and ribs, while Vasquez allegedly told Felix to keep tasing the driver “until he does what he says.”
Luis Vasquez Jr
Vasquez also allegedly drew his handgun, threatened to shoot the driver in three seconds and began counting down. Felix allegedly told Vasquez to shoot if the driver “does anything stupid.” The driver briefly got out of the car before getting back in and driving away, and the passenger was released a short time later.
Vasquez told detectives, “I believed I was stopping a drunk driver.” He also admitted following the car through multiple turns while switching his emergency lights on and off, said the window broke as he tried to pull the door open while the driver was closing it, and said he punched the driver and pulled his hair when the driver would not get out and appeared to be reaching for something.
The same paperwork says Vasquez later returned to the scene to retrieve items left behind from the stop. That leaves the stop itself as the central record: a traffic encounter that began as a pursuit, turned physical at the roadside and ended with arrests, firings and felony charges against two former Phoenix police officers.
