A Tempe police officer mistakenly deployed a Grappler device on the wrong vehicle during a pursuit in October 2023. The incident, captured on body camera footage, shows officers apprehending a woman and her daughter after the Grappler punctured the gas tank of their vehicle.
A Tempe police officer chasing a suspect deployed a Grappler to try and stop the vehicle, but records show it was the wrong car. Records obtained by the ABC15 Investigators show that the vehicle that was mistaken for the suspect’s was the same color, make, model and had the same number of doors. A Grappler is a device used by police in an attempt to stop a moving vehicle. It deploys from the front of a police car and attaches to the suspect vehicle’s back tire.
The pursuit was in October 2023, but it has taken nearly a year for the Tempe Police Department to release the body camera video through a public records request. Tempe police were assisting the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for an aggravated assault suspect through the town of Guadalupe. A report by a detective with Tempe’s Action Response Squad said while approaching the area, the radio became overwhelmed with different officers attempting to give out the location and direction of travel. That’s when the officer located a white Buick Verrano, which matched the description of the suspect vehicle. There is no video of the actual deployment because the Tempe Police Department does not have dash cameras in their patrol cars. However, the body camera footage shows the seconds after police stopped the wrong vehicle. The video shows an officer with his gun drawn telling a woman to step out of the vehicle. “You don’t need to be scared,” he tells the woman. He goes on to yell commands, “Put your hands on top of your head when you come out.” Officers ask if anyone else inside, the woman responds, “my daughter.” “Oh s***,” an officer responds. As an officer tells the woman to keep walking backward towards them, another officer says they need to get the daughter out of the car. The report revealed that the Grappler deployment punctured the gas tank. “If there’s gas leaking and the daughter is in there, let’s go get her out,” an officer says on video. Tempe police say no one was injure
POLICE CHASE Grappler MISIDENTIFICATION WRONG VEHICLE TEMPE POLICE
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