Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 unrated
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez Jr., both fired Phoenix officers, face felony charges including kidnapping and aggravated assault over an Aug. 5 traffic stop.
- The officers allegedly used patrol vehicle emergency lights to stop a 2014 Dodge Charger, then rammed the couple’s car and used excessive force against them.
- Both men are accused of destroying or concealing a cellphone to prevent it being used as evidence, and both were fired upon arrest.
- Neither officer had a formal disciplinary record with AZPOST before this incident, according to records reviewed by Arizona’s Family.
Where they differ
- FOX 10 Phoenix provides the most granular charge-by-charge legal breakdown, including specific felony classes and dollar thresholds for property damage.
- FOX 10 Phoenix includes the added detail that Felix repeatedly tased the victims, citing forensic Taser download data (29 discharge events) as corroborating evidence.
- AZFamily’s second article shifts focus to institutional accountability, covering the AZPOST disciplinary history check, the South Mountain precinct audit, and Chief Giordano’s and Mayor Gallego’s public comments.
- AZFamily alone connects the story to the broader history of DOJ oversight of Phoenix police, including the 2024 civil rights report and its 2025 dismissal, raising questions about whether reduced federal scrutiny played a role.
Two former Phoenix police officers, Antonio Luis Felix and Luis Ricardo Vasquez Jr., both 31, have been criminally charged after allegedly using patrol vehicle lights to pull over a couple on Aug. 5, ramming their car, and then kidnapping and assaulting them near 19th Avenue and Broadway Road. Both men were fired the day they were arrested, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office filed a direct complaint against them this week covering felony kidnapping, aggravated assault, evidence tampering and related charges.
What exactly are Felix and Vasquez accused of doing?
According to court documents, the pair used intermittent emergency lights to stop a 2014 Dodge Charger carrying a man and a woman, then struck the rear of the couple’s car. Prosecutors say the officers falsely claimed afterward that they had stopped an impaired driver in a high-crime area. Instead, they allegedly tried to force open the couple’s doors and then smashed the driver’s side window using what the Deputy County Attorney called “extreme and unjustified violence.”
Vasquez is accused of holding the man at gunpoint, causing damage to the car window, and injuring the man while he was unable to fight back — this forms the basis of a Class 3 “dangerous felony” aggravated assault charge, since it involved a weapon. Felix is accused of injuring the woman while she was restrained and unable to resist, a Class 6 felony charge. FOX 10 Phoenix reports that Felix also tased the couple multiple times; a forensic download of his Taser reportedly showed six safety activations and 29 electrical discharge events during the encounter, which investigators say corroborated the victims’ accounts.
Both men also face charges of threatening or intimidating the victims, and of destroying or concealing a cellphone to keep it from being used as evidence. MCAO says they conspired to kidnap and threaten the couple. Investigators say both officers failed to report their use of force and turned off their body cameras during the stop. Detectives said both men admitted to the crimes. Phoenix Police say the officers did not know the victims before the stop, and the motive remains unknown.
Did either officer have a history of misconduct?
Records from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) show no formal disciplinary history for either man before this arrest. Felix joined the department in August 2017 and was fired nine years later, the same day he was arrested; he was flagged last summer for failing to complete 12 mandatory hours of continuing education, which AZPOST says is a training lapse rather than a misconduct finding. Vasquez, an eight-year officer, had a clean AZPOST record. Chief Matt Giordano said a closer review of both men’s personnel files turned up no red flags, though he acknowledged there were prior policy violations involving the two that have not been detailed publicly, since violations that don’t affect employment status aren’t required to be reported to AZPOST.
What is the department doing in response?
Phoenix Police are auditing the entire South Mountain precinct where the officers worked. Giordano said the department has overhauled its policies and accountability structures, including creating an Organizational Integrity Bureau, and continues to apply findings from a 2024 Department of Justice report even though federal oversight ended.
Why does this connect to the DOJ’s past investigation?
The Justice Department spent years investigating the Phoenix Police Department and in 2024 issued a report alleging a pattern of civil rights violations. Mayor Kate Gallego and other city leaders pushed back against federal oversight, arguing reform could happen internally, and the DOJ dropped its case in 2025. Speaking on KTAR News after the arrests, Gallego said the city is examining whether the two officers had any similar history but has found no evidence of that so far, while acknowledging “there could be more of a story to continue to come out.” Arizona’s Family asked Giordano directly whether the absence of federal monitoring might have let problems persist; he pointed to the department’s internal policy changes as evidence it is still acting on the DOJ’s findings.
Sources
- AZFamily — County attorney details allegations against 2 fired Phoenix officers · Records show no disciplinary history for fired Phoenix officers before arrest
- FOX 10 Phoenix
Featured photo: Misterbobw (talk) via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-3.0)