Performance and discipline records released by Phoenix show nothing that would have predicted the violent traffic stop that resulted in two former police officers being charged with multiple felonies.
Officers Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix were arrested and fired after a criminal investigation into the Aug. 5 incident in which a couple in a Dodge Charger were beaten, shocked with a stun gun and threatened to be shot. The officers didn't identify themselves or turn on their body-worn cameras. They spent a brief time in jail after their arrest before posting bail.
Tempe police became involved after they found the abandoned vehicle and contacted its owner, the driver's mother. They heard some of the tale and convinced the couple to share their
story.
The officers' actions "severely undermine trust in law enforcement and violate the standards we expect from those who serve," Phoenix Police Chief Matt Giordano said at an Aug. 22 news conference.
Yet the records released Sept. 2 describe numerous commendations and routine praise in performance evaluations for the two officers, with just a few knocks over the years for mistakes or occasionally poor duty.
Vasquez and Felix had both been assigned to the department's South Mountain precinct and had served on the force for eight and nine years, respectively. Vasquez has a slightly better record than Felix, reportedly earning 14 commendations from 2019 to 2026 compared with Felix's five commendations from 2020 to 2022. Felix's supervisors also detailed more shortcomings than those seen in Vasquez's reviews.
Jeff Hynes, a retired Phoenix police commander, reviewed the evaluations for The Arizona Republic and said he saw nothing that could have warned supervisors their behavior was about to take a bad turn.
He dismissed the minor offenses as somewhat routine for police.
“Every one of us has something we did wrong, usually minor like a written reprimand or a day off,” he said, adding that over his three-decade career, he “never saw past discipline being predictive of future events.”
Performance reviews mostly contain praise
Both Vasquez and Felix were involved in use-of-force incidents found to be within department guidelines.
Vasquez and another officer shot a man fatally in February 2025 after he opened fire on them during an attempted arrest. All officers involved in the incident "exhibited courage in facing an imminent threat to their lives," one of Vasquez's reviews stated.
Each has only one written reprimand in their files: Vasquez in 2025 for failing to turn on his bodycam while speaking with parties in a collision, Felix in early 2026 for not completing a report on an October 2025 theft and threatening-message call.
Felix's supervisor, Timothy Long, noted Felix's offense in a March 2026 review that was otherwise full of compliments. Long said Felix had completed thorough reports since then and "ensured that would not happen again."
Long also mentioned in the report Felix had just returned from an absence. The records show he took unpaid leave for more than two years, from August 2023 to September 2025. The nature of the time off was redacted from the files.
Felix met expectations overall in the March 2026 review, as he did in other all of his other reviews, and Long commended him for a "solid professional reputation" and demonstrating "impressive investigative skills and sound decision-making across a range of complex and fast-moving situations."
Despite Long's confidence, police reported Felix failed to complete another report in a missing juvenile case in 2026. The omission would have resulted in discipline had he not been fired, police said.
Notable minor problems with Felix included: A community member's complaint for "rudeness" during a 2021 callout; missed court appearances and three minor vehicle collisions. In 2023, he was chided after a recruit he was training turned in a poorly completed report: "Don't let this happen again," a supervisor wrote by hand in a margin.
Vasquez was also dinged in reviews for missed court appearances and a failure to issue a citation in a 2021 vehicle collision.
A supervisor noted in 2023 review that Vasquez was an "exceptional police officer." Similar sentiments appear over time in Vasquez's reviews.
"The hard work and passion everyone shows here is exciting for my future in this department," Vasquez wrote after one of his first positive reviews in 2019.
Luis Vasquez Jr., Antonio Felix face prosecution
The officers told investigators they had followed the couple in the Charger on Aug. 5 because they believed the driver was intoxicated. They stopped the car around 11:30 p.m. near Broadway Road and 17th Avenue, hitting the Charger's rear with the front of their police-issued Chevrolet Tahoe.
Vasquez claimed later he and Felix identified themselves as officers and attempted to arrest the couple when the driver refused to get out of the car.
Vasquez broke the driver's-side window and punched the man repeatedly in the head, face, eyes, nose and groin, investigators said. Felix put the passenger in an arm-control hold, threatening to break her arm before shocking her with a Taser in her back and right thigh, court records show. He slapped handcuffs on her and placed her in the rear of the police Tahoe.
Felix also shocked the driver. His department-issued Taser recorded 29 drive-stun electrical discharges during the encounter, court records show. Vasquez pointed his handgun at the driver, threatening to shoot if he didn't get out, the records show. The driver exited the Charger briefly before getting back in and driving away.
Vasquez and Felix let the woman go, saying they knew where she lived and telling her the driver was probably going to get shot, court records show. The driver was left with bruises, and both victims suffered burns from the Taser strikes.
The officers didn't activate their body cameras, announce what happened on their radio or file a report of the event. Vasquez told investigators he stayed silent because he feared the consequences of numerous policy violations.
Prosecutors charged the two former officers with two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, conspiracy to hinder prosecution, evidence tampering and making threats. One of the two aggravated assault charges against Vasquez is a more a serious Class 3 felony due to his shooting threat, and Vasquez faces a misdemeanor charge for criminal damage.
They face significant prison time if convicted at trial and could lose their pensions.
Arizona Republic reporter Perry Vandell contributed to this article.
Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fired Phoenix police officers' records show no predictors of violence
