2 Phoenix Cops Fired And Arrested On Assault And Kidnapping Charges After Unreported Traffic Stop [Op-Ed]

Two Phoenix police officers have been fired and arrested over an unreported traffic stop, in which they are accused of violently assaulting a man and a woman, threatening them with a firearm, using a taser on them, and kidnapping them.

According to ABC 7, Phoenix Police Chief Matt Giordano announced Saturday that now-former Phoenix police officers Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez were arrested on charges including aggravated assault and kidnapping. The two victims haven’t been identified yet, but the way they have described the stop they endured, they were pulled over by criminals, not cops. Although the way police be lying, who can even tell the difference?

From ABC:

According to a police report obtained by ABC’s Phoenix affiliate station KNXV, the man and woman told the Tempe police officers that they were pulled over in Phoenix by an SUV with lights and siren around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 5.

The man and woman said that during the incident, the two officers punched them, restrained them and used a stun gun on them while they were still in their car, according to the report.

At one point, the man and woman alleged one of the suspects pulled a handgun, counted to three and threatened to shoot the man if he didn’t get out of the car, according to the police report. The woman, according to the report, was handcuffed and pushed face-down to the ground, KNXV reported.

The man managed to escape, get back in his car and drive off, according to the report. His car broke down in Tempe, where he relayed the allegations to an officer who responded to a call about the man’s disabled vehicle, the report says.

The woman told police that after the man escaped, the suspects allegedly released her, warning, “We know where you live now,” according to the report.

OK, first of all, I really hope this man and woman weren’t husband and wife, because that would’ve been a long conversation once she got home to talk about him escaping without her. Let’s focus on the officers, though.

“I’m here to share with you that former officers Felix and Vasquez have been arrested, and I fired them both,” Giordano said Saturday night during a news conference.

It’s welcome news, of course, as it’s typically an uphill battle to see cops actually be held accountable for actions that would certainly be considered criminal if civilians did them. Far too often, cops aren’t even fired over their criminal violence and misconduct, let alone arrested and charged.

In fact, earlier this year, we reported that officers with the Phoenix Police Department were caught conjuring a fake gang and then falsely charging protesters as members of that fake gang back in 2020, and those officers received no discipline, legally or otherwise, because they were all retired by the time their transgressions were discovered, which, of course, should not have protected them from arrest.

As for these ex-Phoenix cops, Felix and Vasquez, according to CBS News, they made their first court appearance Saturday night, when a judge set a $100,000 secured appearance bond for each defendant, with electronic monitoring required if they’re released. Their next court appearance is scheduled for this Friday.

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