Phoenix police kill man during shootout on Indian School Road

The Phoenix Police Department has released body camera and other video footage from a Jan. 27 robbery that left 42-year-old Guy Vogel Jr. dead after being shot by officers.

The video footage police released on Feb. 10 is part of the agency’s “critical incident briefing,” which is made public after any police shooting or in-custody death. The briefings are narrated by officers and include edited compilations of body camera footage, dispatch audio and other information regarding an incident.

According to the briefing, the shooting happened at 22nd Avenue and Indian School Road. Police were dispatched after a pawnshop owner reported that two people — a man and a woman — stole two guns from his store, according to an audio recording.

Video footage from inside the store also is part of the police briefing. It showed a man smashing a glass display and taking two guns from it before walking out.

When officers arrived, the store owner directed them to the couple from the robbery as they walked west along 19th Avenue, according to the briefing. Body cam footage from officers showed an officer telling Vogel to “drop the fucking gun” and firing a nonlethal foam launcher. The officer fired “in the direction of” Vogel, according to the police briefing.

As police pursued Vogel, two officers told him to “drop the fucking gun now” and “get on your stomach.” A man off camera is heard yelling at officers, “Fucking kill me” and “kill me, pussies.”

Sgt. Brian Bower said in the briefing that Vogel then “approached a truck stopped in the roadway and began to hit the truck’s window with a gun, attempting to get in.” Footage of Vogel hitting the truck’s window with a gun isn’t visible from body camera clips shown in the video.

Body cam footage from two officers, however, showed that officers fired on Vogel when he pointed a gun toward them. Four officers shot at Vogel, who was then taken to a hospital and died from his injuries.

In the briefing video, Bower said police recovered the gun Vogel used.

Sgt. Phil Krynsky, an agency spokesperson, did not respond to question from Phoenix New Times about whether the gun recovered had been reloaded or if the gun shown by police in the video is one of the stolen weapons. New Times also requested the incident report, but it has not been released by police.

Police said the woman who participated in the robbery, 25-year-old Felicia Evans, was arrested. She is charged with four felonies — three armed robbery charges and one count of possession of a weapon by a prohibited person.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office opened a criminal investigation into the shooting, and police are conducting an internal investigation to determine if officers followed department policy.

Phoenix police fatal encounters in 2024

The U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating Phoenix police for nearly 30 months regarding patterns in use of force by officers, discriminatory policing and treatment of unsheltered and disabled people. Chief Michael Sullivan was brought in to lead the department in September 2022 as it dealt with the probe.

The city of Phoenix is publicly pushing back against any independent oversight sought by the U.S. Justice Department. But the recent resignation of the head of Phoenix’s Office of Accountability and Transparency is shedding light on the weakness of the city’s ability to watchdog its own police department.

In 2023, Phoenix police officers shot and killed 12 people, an increase from 2022. Fatal police encounters in 2024 include:

• Jan. 5: Officers shot and killed Junior Reyes, 30, after Reyes fired at officers, injuring one. Police said they were attempting to arrest Reyes, who was wanted on a felony warrant.
• Jan. 11: Officers shot and killed John Michael Lewis Jr., 43, in what started as a welfare check. Police said they tried to contact people in the house through the back door when Lewis produced a handgun. Police shot Lewis, and he was pronounced dead at his house.
• Jan. 27: Officers shot and killed Guy Vogel Jr., 42, after responding to a call that a store was robbed and guns were taken. Police found Vogel and a woman, who they believed were the suspects. The officers gave verbal commands and fired a nonlethal launcher at Vogel, who fled and then produced a handgun. Police responded by firing at and hitting him. Vogel was taken to a hospital, where he died from injuries.