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The Phoenix Police Department fired an officer on April 10 for his involvement in the September 2022 fatal shooting of 34-year-old Ali Osman. Officer Jesse Johnson, who allegedly shot at Osman at least three times, was terminated by Chief Michael Sullivan after an internal investigation by the department found that Johnson’s conduct was not in line with its policy, according to a statement from the agency…
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TJ L’Heureux
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The video does not show Godines being shot. The officer who shot Godines was in a vehicle, and body camera footage shows the interior of the car door and the officer’s left hand aiming a gun through the open car window.
The video footage police released on Tuesday 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 incident started at 10:45 p.m. around 27th Avenue and Van Buren Street when police saw a brown car exit a business parking lot at high speed. The officers alerted other police in the area, who then attempted unsuccessfully to pull over the car at 34th Avenue and Van Buren. When patrol officers lost sight of the vehicle, police said their helicopter started following it.
The car traveled to 43rd Avenue and Granada Road, where the driver reportedly got out while armed and ran up to a car yelling at that driver, who drove away.
According to police, the suspect got back into his car and drove to 60th Lane and McDowell Road, where he allegedly tried to carjack a second vehicle. That person also drove off.
The suspect then ran up to yet another car. The driver told police the suspect “slammed both hands on the hood of her car holding a gun and demanded she give him her car.” Two officers arrived, and both reportedly saw the suspect pointing his gun at one of the officers.
“That is when the suspect and one officer exchanged gunfire,” Lt. Vince Lewis said in the briefing video. “The suspect was hit and fell to the ground. The officer was not hurt.”
Three sources of video are shown in the briefing: body camera footage from the officer who shot Godines showing the interior of the police vehicle from which the officer fired; body camera footage from another officer arriving on the scene that shows the interior of a vehicle then a body lying on the ground; and security camera footage from a nearby house showing the top of a person’s head visible above a wall before gunshots are heard. No other video or audio footage from the apparent chase is included in the video.
In a media advisory sent on the day of the shooting, police said officers got the gun away from the man, though the briefing released Tuesday says the “gun was recovered near where the suspect was shot.”
Godines was taken to a hospital where he died from his wounds, according to police. The car Godines was driving had been reported stolen earlier, police said.
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.
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 calling into question 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:
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TJ L’Heureux
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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.
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:
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TJ L’Heureux
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