Two men who appeared to be Phoenix police officers repeatedly beat, shocked and threatened to shoot a couple during a traffic stop in which the pair were forcibly removed from their vehicle with no reason given for the stop, according to a Tempe police report.
The encounter between the couple and the men in law enforcement vehicles was described in a 12-page report that suggested the couple were victims of multiple crimes, including armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and impersonating a police officer.
While Phoenix police have not confirmed whether the men who pulled over the couple were officers, two Phoenix police officers were recently placed on administrative leave on suspicion of failing to document their use of force or activate
their body cameras during a traffic stop, Cmdr. Mercedes Fortune said in an Aug. 17 statement.
The time, date and general location of the traffic stop included in Fortune's statement matched the stop listed in Tempe police's report.
Tempe officers compiled the report and sent it along to Phoenix police. Here's what the report said.
Police vehicle follows car, breaks window after stop
A man was seated in a red 2014 Dodge Charger, with his girlfriend in the front passenger seat, on the evening of Aug. 5 near 11th Avenue just south of Southern Avenue when what appeared to be a marked Phoenix police vehicle approached southbound on Southern before flashing its high beams at the couple.
The man started the Dodge Charger and turned on the headlights when he noticed the police vehicle make a U-turn from southbound to northbound on 11th Avenue and began following him. He later noticed the police vehicle following them had activated emergency lights, but he didn't hear a siren, the report stated.
The man continued driving until he heard a brief siren and ultimately stopped in the curb lane of Broadway Road between a bus stop and 17th Avenue when the police vehicle's front bumper tapped the Charger's rear bumper, the report said.
Two men exited the police vehicle and approached either side of the Charger and immediately began trying to open the vehicle's doors, the report said. The man on the driver's side shouted at the driver to exit the vehicle, while the man on the passenger side threatened to smash the window, the report said.
Neither man was in official uniform, according to the police report. The man on the driver's side was described as a heavy-set Hispanic male in black clothing, and the man on the passenger side was described as a "skinny Middle Eastern or Indian male" in all blue clothing. They were described as 25-30 years old.
The man in black ordered the driver to turn off the vehicle and put his hands on the steering wheel. The driver, who had rolled his window down about half an inch, rolled it down a little bit more when the man in black clothing pulled out of the vehicle's window, reached into the Charger and unlocked the driver's side door, the report stated.
He reached in and tried to unbuckle the driver's seatbelt, prompting the driver's girlfriend to yell that his actions were illegal, the report said. Both the driver and his girlfriend repeatedly asked the men why they were being stopped, the report added.
The man in blue clothing opened the passenger-side door and put the driver's girlfriend in an "arm bar" and threatened to break her arm if she didn't exit the vehicle before applying a stun gun to her right thigh, the report said.
The man in black advised him to set the stun gun to a higher setting before he applied it to the woman's back while she was restrained in an arm bar hold, the report said.
The man in blue pulled the woman out of the vehicle, handcuffed her behind her back and pushed her onto the sidewalk, the report said.
The woman remained lying on her stomach while the two men continued to assault the driver for approximately six minutes as he remained in the vehicle, the report said. One man punched the driver in the head and face with a closed fist roughly seven times and pulled out pieces of his hair while the other repeatedly applied a stun gun to the driver's ribs and arms, the report said.
At one point, the man in blue placed the woman in the back of the two men's white SUV.
The report then says the man who repeatedly punched the driver drew a handgun from his right hip, pointed it toward the ground and told the driver he was going to shoot him in three seconds. He began counting down.
The driver said, "Wait, wait, wait," and began to exit the vehicle when the man in blue, who had handcuffed the woman, told the other, "If he jumps out of the car or does something stupid, shoot him," the report stated.
The man who threatened to shoot the driver ordered him to put his hands behind his back and produced a pair of handcuffs, but the driver got back into the Dodge Charger and turned it on. The man who had threatened to shoot the driver earlier repeated his threat, saying he would shoot the driver if he drove off, documents said.
Despite that, the driver sped away east on Broadway Road. He continued driving and reached Priest Drive and Baseline Road in Tempe when the car overheated and became disabled, the report said. When the man saw the vehicle that had pulled him over hadn't followed him, he walked to a relative's home in Guadalupe, the report said.
Left with the two men who had pulled them over, the woman's handcuffs were removed and she was released, documents said.
The two men commented, "Why would he do that, he's probably going to get shot," and the man who originally handcuffed her said, "We know where you live now," the report said.
The woman later tracked her phone to a Salt River wash near where they were pulled over and factory reset her phone, fearing the men would use it to find her home address.
Tempe police answer call for disabled vehicle
Sometime after the driver of the Dodge Charger left the overheated car, Tempe police officers responded to a call about the disabled vehicle and contacted the registered owner to notify the person that the car was about to be towed and where it could be picked up.
The owner, who turned out to be the driver's mother, said her son had permission to use the car and was likely visiting a family member in Guadalupe based on the car's location. While on the phone with police, she heard a knock at the door.
She answered to find her son's girlfriend, who recounted the harrowing and violent traffic stop with men who appeared to be Phoenix police officers.
When a Tempe officer contacted her the next day, the driver's mother said her son and his girlfriend hadn't reported the incident as they were terrified of speaking with Phoenix police.
Her son was especially scared that police would arrest him for fleeing from the traffic stop, but a Tempe officer assured the mother there was no known history of law enforcement stopping her Dodge Charger on the evening of Aug. 5.
Tempe police interviewed the man and woman who had been pulled over about their experience before referring the case to Phoenix police.
Based on their interviews, "The suspect vehicle description provided is consistent with a white, older model Police SUV (possibly Chevy Tahoe) sold at an auction," the report said.
When she was handcuffed and inside that vehicle, the woman in the traffic stop saw an open laptop with the screen visible and a radio near the center of the front passenger compartment and heard radio traffic, the report said.
"You guys are down at 19th? What's the situation over there? Do you need backup?" the dispatcher was quoted as saying in the report.
What is the status of the Phoenix investigation?
Phoenix police have not identified the officers under investigation.
Fortune said she didn’t expect Tempe police to release the report so quickly during an active and ongoing investigation.
“It really does affect our case, unfortunately,” Fortune said during a phone call with The Republic on the evening of Aug. 18. “But we can’t put the genie back in the bottle, obviously.”
Fortune reiterated that the department was treating the allegations extremely seriously and would conduct a thorough investigation no matter the circumstances.
The department's Special Investigations Detail was conducting a criminal investigation into the incident, after which the Professional Standards Bureau would launch an administrative investigation to see what policies the officers may have violated, Fortune said earlier.
"Our commitment to transparency and accountability remains central to this process," Fortune said. "Additional information will be shared as the investigation progresses."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tempe police report describes violent Phoenix traffic stop
