An Arizona woman mistakenly stopped with a Grappler device during a pursuit tells the ABC15 Investigators she thought she and her daughter were going to die.
“The exact moment when it happened is devastating,” said Tristan Sosa, “just seeing my daughter's face was... I don't think I could ever forget that.”
Sosa was driving in the town of Guadalupe in October 2023 when she recounted looking in the rearview mirror and seeing a cop really close behind her. “I thought he hit my car. I didn't think he threw something at my car,” she said.
We previously reported that a Tempe police officer chasing a suspect deployed a Grappler to try and stop the vehicle, but records show it was the wrong car.
See the original investigation in the player below.
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 took 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 with an aggravated assault suspect in the town of Guadalupe.
A report by a detective with Tempe’s Action Response Squad said that 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 Verano, which matched the description of the suspect vehicle.
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“I could have [sworn] we were gonna die,” said Sosa, “then the police officer just pointing the guns at us.”
Sosa could be heard on body camera video yelling at officers that her ten-year-old daughter was in the car.
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.
Sosa says she is still without a vehicle more than 14 months after the incident. “It’s been rough,” she described.
A spokesperson for the City of Tempe said the risk management department paid a reimbursement of more than $500 to the driver, but Sosa said she never received that money.
Tempe later told the ABC15 Investigators that the money went to the rental company.
In total, the damages to Sosa’s car were estimated at nearly $10,000.
An email between Sosa and Tempe’s risk management department shows her car was deemed a total loss.
Sosa said since her car was totaled, she now has to take an Uber to work, but says she has reduced her hours to part-time because of the added cost of relying on a rideshare service.
At one point, Sosa said she reached out to an attorney for help but the cost was too high.
“I didn't have the money at the moment, and still don't, because of bills and trying to save up for a car,” she said.
Sosa said a rental car was provided to her as they worked through the estimates for a repair, but said the city eventually gave her the runaround.
A spokesperson for the City of Tempe said they made several attempts to work with the owner of the vehicle.
In an email, a spokesperson wrote that state laws say a claim may be made within 180 days of the incident.
“The City of Tempe makes the notice of claim process as easy as possible. The form is online at tempe.gov/RiskManagement and the link to the form as well as the amount of time allowed to return it are at the top of the page,” the email read, in part.
A report written by the officer said that the suspect vehicle and Sosa’s are the same make and model. The report also revealed that when the Grappler was deployed, it punctured Sosa’s gas tank.
When asked if the officer had his lights and sirens on to conduct a traffic stop first, Sosa said, “no, not at all.... That's why I thought it was strange, when I looked in my mirror he was driving really close and all of a sudden I just felt a big bang against my car.”
A spokesperson for the Tempe Police Department said in an email that a Grappler is something done by surprise.
“If the lights are on and the suspect sees our vehicle, it is much more difficult to use the grappler,” the email read, in part.
Sosa said following the incident, one officer told her they stopped her by mistake and gave her a piece of paper with a number to call.
She went on to say there was no offer to find her a ride home, “we just ended up walking... Me and my daughter went walking to her dad’s house, it was only like a mile away.”
Sosa said she got to the point where she wanted this to be in the past.
"I kind of just wanted this to be behind me and my daughters, and we don't have to think about this again and you know, it could be just a bad nightmare," Sosa said.
If you would like to donate to Sosa, a GoFundMe account has been started.
The video released to the ABC15 Investigators is completely blurred — this was done by the records department with the Tempe Police Department. A spokesperson for the department said their policy is to place a “medium blur” on video records that are released.
No officers were disciplined.
The Tempe Police Department said this was a training issue, not a disciplinary issue.
A spokesperson for the department went on to say that the officers involved received further training on how to properly identify suspect vehicles.
The ABC15 Investigators learned that the officer who deployed the grappler was later promoted to sergeant in 2024, and resigned months later to take a different job opportunity outside of the department.
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Editorial note: Following our report, ABC15 reached out again to request an interview with the city.
That was declined.
A spokesperson provided a more detailed statement, which can be read in its entirety below:
- "The City of Tempe cannot settle a claim that has not been received. Tristen Sosa has never filed a notice of claim. We did have staff go over the claim process with her shortly after the incident occurred to help her understand it.
- This claim form typically takes about an hour to fill out and has only nine questions. It’s similar in some ways to typical insurance claim forms. No attorney is needed to fill this form out or to file it. Arizona State Law gives people six months to do this activity that typically takes about an hour.
- The City of Tempe reached out to Sosa many times throughout the process to request that a claim be filed. We also left messages for her with family. We were not alone in our extensive efforts to reach her. It took many attempts by the rental car company and the appraisal company to reach her.
- Tristen Sosa told us she was filing for compensation with her insurance company and we have not heard from her since.
Even though the six-month timeline is well past, Sosa is invited to file a Notice of Claim and our Risk Management office will review it. We cannot settle a claim without a Notice of Claim form. As with anyone who is filing a notice of claim, if there are difficulties completing the form, we have team members who can help."
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Have a news tip? Email Investigator Nicole Grigg at nicole.grigg@abc15.com.
