A Phoenix officer pointed his handgun at a driver trapped in his own car and started counting down from three — while his partner, prosecutors write, told him that if the man ran, to fire on him. That’s not a rumor. It’s in a probable cause statement, and the same court file holds something harder to argue with: a forensic download from a Taser that recorded 29 discharges that night, geolocated to the corner where it happened.
Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix were arrested and fired the same day over the unreported August 5 stop. The probable cause statement, obtained by ABC15’s Dave Biscobing, is the first public look at the evidence detectives assembled — and at the officers’ own accounts, given in voluntary statements with their attorneys present.
What the court file says happened
August 5, just before midnight, 15th Avenue and Broadway Road. Per the statement, the two officers followed a Dodge Charger in a marked Phoenix Tahoe, flashing lights and siren on and off — a pattern investigators wrote was inconsistent with a standard traffic stop — then contacted the Charger’s rear bumper. Detectives measured the damage and matched it to a Phoenix police push bar. Felix shut off the overhead lights after the impact, the filing says.
What followed is why kidnapping is on the charge sheet. Prosecutors write that Vasquez bent the driver’s window until the glass shattered, reached inside, and unlocked the door from the interior panel. Felix allegedly put the woman in an arm bar, threatened to break her arm if the driver didn’t get out, and pressed his department Taser against her thigh and back. Vasquez struck the driver with closed fists again and again while Felix stunned him — 29 drive-stun discharges and six safety-switch events, logged by Felix’s serial-numbered Taser 7 and downloaded by forensic examiners.
Then the countdown. Vasquez drew his handgun, gave the driver three seconds, and began counting. The statement quotes Felix: if the man jumps out or does anything stupid, fire on him. The driver broke free and ran. The officers uncuffed the woman, released her, and told her — per the document — “he’s probably going to get shot and we know where you live now.”
The stop that officially never happened
The man reached a hospital about four hours later. Both victims still had visible Taser burn marks two weeks on, and their injury photos were submitted to Tempe police — the department they turned to after the encounter.
Detectives found none of it was ever documented: no body camera activation, no call for service, no report, no radio traffic, no supervisor notification. Then, records show, the next night Tempe police asked Phoenix to notify the owner of a recovered Dodge Charger — stalled near Priest and Baseline roads with a shattered window, matching the victims’ car. The two officers took that call themselves and closed it: no further action needed, no answer, voicemail left. Prosecutors call that hindering prosecution.
The charges — and what’s next
Each man is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, threatening, and hindering prosecution. Bonds were set at $100,000 each, with GPS monitoring if released. Vasquez has bonded out; Felix remained in custody after a late-Saturday first appearance in South Mountain Justice Court, where Deputy County Attorney Tom Van Dorn argued both men are a danger to the community and a flight risk. Phoenix’s professional standards bureau is now examining whether anyone else was involved.
Every charge is an allegation right now. Both men are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty — the same standard the badge is supposed to represent. This post will be updated as the case develops: court dates, the professional standards bureau’s findings, and any new charges.
If it took a Taser’s own memory log to prove a stop ever happened — how many stops leave nothing behind to remember them?
Sources
ABC15 · Dave Biscobing (X) · Phoenix Police Department press briefing
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