Two Phoenix Officers Fired, Arrested After Taser Stop

A male driver and a woman passenger say officers smashed the car window, according to a statement from Phoenix police. Vasquez punched the man and threatened to shoot him, the statement said, and the woman was pulled from the vehicle and handcuffed.

The man drove away and abandoned the car in neighboring Tempe. The woman was released at the scene.

An officer who responded to the abandoned car asked over dispatch whether it had fled any neighboring agency and was told it had not, according to a Tempe police report. He called the car's registered owner — the driver's mother — and through her reached the woman passenger and then the driver. She said both had been shocked with a Taser; he said he had been punched in the face multiple times and that they had repeatedly asked why they were stopped. The Tempe officer wrote that he believed they were victims of an attempted carjacking by people impersonating police officers.

Phoenix detectives came to suspect their own officers were involved and moved the case to a special investigations detail. Evidence included the automatic vehicle locator in city vehicles, which Giordano said placed a vehicle at the location around the time the victims reported the stop.

Giordano announced the firings and arrests.

Dave Evans, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, said Vasquez had been released from custody while Felix remained incarcerated at the Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix.