A 29-year-old West Phoenix man says officers pulled him from his car by his hair and punched him during an Aug. 21 traffic stop near 27th Avenue and Campbell, an allegation now under an active administrative investigation by Phoenix police. De’Yante Smith spent roughly 36 hours in the Maricopa County jail and was treated at a hospital afterward, and weapons charges connected to the stop were later declined by prosecutors.
According to police reports, officers stopped Smith for an expired registration, and the encounter escalated into a physical struggle that a police report says lasted approximately 69 seconds, according to abc15.com. That same police account says Smith pulled away from officers and resisted, and describes approximately seven closed-hand strikes to his body and one strike to the side of his head. Smith’s attorney, Sean Woods, disputes that version entirely, saying officers never told Smith why he was stopped and never asked for his license or registration before things turned physical.
Competing Accounts of the Struggle
Woods says an officer grabbed Smith by his hair with both hands, snatched him from the vehicle, and then punched him, including a blow to the side of his head. “He grabs me by my hair with two hands and snatches me out the car and then they proceed to punch me,” Smith said, describing the moment, per the same account carried by abc15.com. Woods maintains Smith was not resisting and says he expects body-camera footage, once released, to contradict the police report’s characterization that Smith attempted a takedown move.
Police reports state that an inventory search of Smith’s car turned up a loaded handgun, a rifle, and suspected ecstasy tablets. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office ultimately declined to pursue weapons charges tied to those items because Smith was not a prohibited possessor under the law, the outlet’s report notes.
Footage Still Withheld, Attorney Says
Neither Smith nor his legal team at Mills and Woods Law has received the body-camera footage from the stop, and the report notes that video had not been publicly released either. Woods has said the City of Phoenix typically indicates such footage can take up to 18 months to produce. Phoenix police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case, according to KTAR News 92.3 FM, though the department has confirmed the matter falls under an active administrative investigation by its Professional Standards Bureau.
Part of a Wider Pattern Under Review
Smith’s case surfaces as Phoenix police face scrutiny over a separate, unrelated traffic stop from Aug. 5 in South Phoenix, where two officers were placed on leave amid allegations of criminal conduct, as reported by FOX 10 Phoenix. In that incident, the department said the officers used force but failed to report it as required and did not activate their body cameras, according to azfamily.com.
Those two officers, Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez, were later fired, and state prosecutors alleged they held a man and a woman against their will during an unreported stop, azfamily.com's coverage states. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is now reviewing all open and closed cases tied to the pair, who have been added to the Brady list, and Phoenix has said it is reviewing their squad and the South Mountain Precinct for possible systemic issues. The city released the two former officers’ full disciplinary files through its online public-records platform, according to a City of Phoenix announcement.
Smith, meanwhile, has taken his account public. On Facebook, he wrote that he is seeking an experienced civil rights and police excessive-force attorney to review what happened and help him pursue appropriate legal action. As the Professional Standards Bureau’s administrative investigation continues, both the released body-camera footage and any findings from that review remain outstanding.
