8 July 2nd - July 8th, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | McRae’s brief report at the end of the CAD distribution reads: “Thomas Angelo Garro was able to read lips and was upset when I told him my reason for the traffic stop was he was speeding. Thomas then argued more about everyone speeding.” The incident report goes into more detail. McRae wrote that he pulled Garro over because he’d clocked him driving 60 miles per hour before accelerating to pass another car. Garro pointed at his ear, mouthing “I am deaf,” McRae wrote. McRae then asked Garro for his license while he looked at his face. Garro nodded in acknowledgment and handed over his license. “Thomas then threw his hands up in the air and mouthed, why are you stop- ping me,” McRae wrote. He described Garro as getting more frustrated as he asked for his registration, grunting and throwing his hands in the air. “I then asked for his insurance and Thomas said what? I asked again and Thomas refused to look at me,” he wrote. Garro handed him an expired insurance card. “I held my finger next to the expira- tion and presented it to Thomas. Thomas just exhaled loudly and refused to grab his expired insurance,” he wrote. McRae writes that he went back to his patrol vehicle to run Garro’s info. While he was there, Garro got out of his car and waved his arms around. McRae ordered him back into the car, to which Garro responded by “throwing his hands in the air then pointing to his watch.” McRae wrote that he told Garro to get back in the car, this time (for some reason) louder. He added that Garro — who, again, is deaf — listened that time. The rest of the report continues in a similar fashion. Eventually, he arrests Garro. Joshua, who said they interacted while he was getting their information earlier in the traffic stop, doesn’t appear in McRae’s report until after Garro gets out of the car to open her door. “I looked inside the rear of the vehicle a (sic) saw a female sitting. I did not know until this point another passenger was inside the vehicle,” he wrote. Garro said he can’t read lips — espe- cially if someone has a mustache, like McRae. Even if he could, it would have been very difficult to do in that situation. “He was angry, he was frustrated, he was screaming, and there was just so much going on,” Garro said. “I couldn’t read his lips even if I tried.” The aftermath Joshua said she hid in the car until one of the newly arrived deputies opened the door and told her she could get out. McRae came over and apologized to her before she left, she said. It was like he was sorry she’d had to see that. She found it strange because he was the reason the traffic stop escalated. Before leaving, she asked him what was going to happen to Garro, who was handcuffed next to an ambulance. “‘He’s going to jail because he didn’t listen to me,’” she recalled McRae saying, adding, “He kept saying that he was going to jail.” Garro did not go to jail. Instead, he was taken to the hospital and then released. According to the incident report, McRae tried to charge him with resisting arrest and failure to comply with a police officer, but the charges didn’t stick. Garro left the encounter with two tickets: one for speeding and one for driving with expired insurance. Both were ultimately dropped after he showed proof of valid insurance — he’d accidentally grabbed the wrong card from the glove box that day — and McRae didn’t show up to a hearing about the speeding. Months later, Garro is still struggling both mentally and physically from his encounter with McRae. He’s working with a therapist who knows sign language. He has started driving again, but only for short distances. He hasn’t driven for a rideshare app since. His daughter launched a GoFundMe to help with his bills, but it hasn’t come close to its $9,000 goal. Joshua — who said she was never inter- viewed by law enforcement about the inci- dent — said she feels bad that her note prompted Garro to get out of the car. “I really wanted to leave, but I — I was, I was scared to open the door myself,” she said. “I got the driver to, and you know, then that made it worse for him.” But Garro said it was a relief to find out about her 911 call. He wasn’t alone in thinking the deputy was being aggressive. That corroboration will help his case, should he choose to file one. “It’s proof that someone else saw the injustice,” he said. Tom Garro. (Provided by Tom Garro) Calling the Cops on the Cops from p 7
