Southern Avenue and 10th Street, allegedly because his bike was missing a required light. However, the police report reveals that both officers told a detective investigating the shooting that they “knew a few drug houses” in the area and Alvarez “did not have a bike light on,” so they “decided to stop and talk” to him. A pretextual stop is one in which a “police officer identifies an objective violation of a traffic law” that allows the officer to “lawfully stop a motorist — even if the officer’s actual intention is to use the stop to investigate a hunch that, by itself, would not amount to reasonable suspicion or probable cause,” as the Stanford Law Review wrote in 2021. They were ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1996, though there have been efforts in many states to ban or limit them in the decades since. Studies have shown that police conduct pretextual stops of racial minorities — which Sergio certainly was — at a disproportionate rate. The two officers spoke to Sergio through a window of their Chevy Tahoe, the police report said. They asked his name. De La Pena told an investigator that Alvarez “provided a name of ‘Sergio’ something,” which De La Pena incorrectly assumed to be a fake name. In part based on what they perceived to be Sergio’s shiftiness and unwillingness to iden- tify himself, the two officers exited their vehicle and told Sergio they were stopping him for the bike light infraction. At least, that’s what the police report says. If the two officers did in fact tell Sergio the reason for the stop, it’s not evident in the body-cam footage released by the depart- ment as part of a “critical incident briefing” after his killing. The video starts in the heat of action, with Estrella rushing out of the driv- er’s side of the Tahoe to the opposite side, where De La Pena could be seen pushing Sergio up against the car. When the audio begins playing after a delay, Sergio can be heard screaming. “What are you guys doing?” Sergio asked, only to be told that he’s “under arrest” and to get on the ground. “For what? I haven’t done shit to you guys,” Sergio said. “Do I have a warrant or what the fuck?” The officers did not reply. The rest of what happened is barely visible — police said one officer lost his body camera at the start of the interaction, while the other lost his when Sergio was wrestled to the ground. From that point, all that can be seen is a jostle of bodies in one corner of the frame. After the shooting, both officers told investigators that Estrella was on top of a face-down Sergio while De La Pena was wrestling with Sergio’s right hand. Though not much can be seen in the body- cam footage, much can be heard. Sergio continued screaming for help and told the officers to get off him and stop choking him. “I’m not,” one officer replied. “Stop grabbing my hand.” “I can’t breathe,” Sergio said, his voice muffled. Then, about 80 seconds after the body-cam footage began — right after Sergio shifted his weight onto one hip, Estrella told investigators — a shot was fired. Speaking to an investigator from the hospital after the shooting, Estrella said it sounded like a balloon loudly popping. “He shot me,” Estrella said twice. Speaking to investigators afterward, De La Pena said he saw a gun in Sergio’s left hand, which Estrella said earlier had been extended — and empty — above his body. “Put it down,” De La Pena ordered. “Put it down now.” De La Pena ordered Estrella to step back and radio for assistance. Then, he told inves- tigators, he put the muzzle of his service weapon to Sergio’s back and fired. De La Pena said he fired two shots, though the medical examiner’s report said he was shot three times — in the shoulder, jaw and neck. “Stop, or I’m gonna shoot you again,” De La Pena commanded. Sergio continued to moan and scream. At the end of the video provided by police, he again asked officers, “Why did you stop me?” The officers did not reply. The shooting and the aftermath Exactly what happened in that roughly two- minute span may never be fully known, at least outside of the official police narrative. Did Sergio really manage to “pull out a handgun and fire it” while being dogpiled by two cops? If he did, why? The record leaves only the recollections of De La Pena and Estrella. Phoenix New Times requested all body-cam footage from the incident, but was not provided any footage that showed how the interaction between Sergio and the two officers began. Sergio’s family has filled in one gap, although hardly to their satisfaction. In both an advisory issued soon after Sergio’s death and in the video briefing published two weeks later, police said Sergio was able to stand up and walk away from the officers before being taken into custody, at which point he was given emergency medical aid. But that brief narrative glosses over much of what happened after Sergio was shot. Records indicate that De La Pena was busy trying to give aid to Estrella and let Sergio walk away because he had dropped the gun and knew other officers were responding. Security camera footage from a nearby building, obtained by Sergio’s family, shows much of what happened next. (Though police sometimes include such footage in critical incident briefings, it was not included in the public briefing on Sergio’s death. The department claimed it had no surveillance footage related to the incident in response to a records request from New Times.) The footage shows that Sergio stumbled away after he was shot. He appeared to be in a stupor. When a squad car pulled up, he raised his arms. No weapon was visible in his hands, just a cell phone. According to the police report, Sgt. Brent McElvain walked over and sent Sergio to the ground with a forceful kick. (McElvain told investigators that he activated his body camera while driving up, though no footage from it was included in the depart- ment’s public briefing. The department said it is still working on producing that footage in response to New Times’ records request.) Two more cops joined McElvain, kicking and pummeling Sergio for about 30 seconds before ultimately handcuffing him. Then, for roughly seven to 10 minutes — it is difficult to tell, based on the grainy security camera footage — three or four officers stood over Sergio’s squirming body. One officer told investigators that he quickly started rendering aid to Sergio by stuffing his gunshot wounds, though it’s difficult to tell from the surveillance footage exactly when that happened. As time passed, more officers arrived on the scene, walking around the car- swarmed street. After a few minutes, Alvarez’s body stopped moving. At that point, the footage shows an officer performing CPR on Sergio for about a minute before para- medics arrived. According to hospital records signed by doctors at Valleywise Health Medical Center, Alvarez likely died at 3:24 a.m., roughly three minutes after the ambulance left the scene. He was pronounced dead at 3:42 a.m., shortly after arriving at the hospital. Police files say police recovered two guns — one that was left on the ground by the bicycle, missing one bullet, and another in Alvarez’s backpack. They also found two magazines of ammunition, a small baggie of a clear substance that they believed to be methamphetamine and a bag of blue pills they thought were fentanyl. New Times sent questions to the depart- ment about whether the bullet that hit Estrella matched the bullets in the gun recov- ered on scene, and if any fingerprints on the weapon matched Sergio’s. New Times also asked if the substances found in Sergio’s bag were what police suspected. Donna Rossi, the department’s director of communica- tions, declined to answer. New Times also asked the police depart- ment for the results of its internal investiga- tion into the shooting but has not received them. Records show the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges against De La Pena for shooting Alvarez — but the office noted that no other officers involved were investigated. Destiny said that while the guns and ammo found on Sergio were not a surprise to the family, the drugs were. “I knew about the guns,” she said. “He used to do drugs before he got out of prison the last time, but it didn’t seem like he was using them. We didn’t know anything about him having them.” The shooting isn’t the only thing that troubles the Alvarez family. Sergio’s daugh- ters are disgusted by what happened after. “Instead of helping him, they’re kicking him,” Destiny said. Isla called the police response “fucked-up” and unnecessary. “They were beating him up while he was already down,” she said, “and already shot.” The Alvarez family learned of Sergio’s death at 9 a.m. later that morning, when a Phoenix police officer rolled up to the house of Sergio’s sister — named Maria, like their mother. According to the police report, the cop was accompanied by Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies due to “anti-police senti- ment known to the deputies from the suspect’s family.” Nothing aggressive happens in an audio recording of the encounter released by police, which lasts about seven minutes. But it makes for difficult listening. The younger Maria answers the door brightly, making pleasant chatter with the officer. Eventually, the officer apparently shows her a photo of Sergio. “Is that your brother?” he asks. “Yes…” Maria responds. “I’m sorry,” the officer says. “He’s passed away.” “No…” Maria says. “How?” As the officer explains the circumstances of Sergio’s death, Maria breaks down crying. Gasping for breath, she asks a few questions — where to identify Sergio’s body, where he was killed. The officer asks if there’s anyone she needs to call. As she sobs, he offers his card. “I wish this had never happened,” he says. Questions remain More than a year has passed since then, and that shock and grief persist. Sergio’s mother has refused to watch the police videos documenting the death of her son. Renee has watched them and called the footage “disgusting.” Isla is suspicious about the beginning of the interaction between her father and the officers. >> p 15 Mercedes Alvarez comforts her grandmother, Maria, as she talks about losing Sergio Alvarez in a police shooting. (TJ L’Heureux) Security camera footage acquired by the Alvarez family shows what happened after he was shot. (Courtesy of the Alvarez family)
