BUCKEYE, AZ — A former Buckeye police officer is headed to trial on 2 counts of aggravated assault after internal investigations documented what supervisors described as excessive and unnecessary force against people who were handcuffed and in custody.
Carri Carrico, who resigned from the Buckeye Police Department earlier this month, was indicted by a grand jury on May 27, 2026 on 2 counts of aggravated assault — one count connected to each of two separate incidents. She entered a not guilty plea at her arraignment earlier this week. Her trial is scheduled for November. Her attorney declined to comment.
ABC15 obtained body camera footage and surveillance video from both incidents.
The first incident: A pregnant woman in handcuffs
The first incident happened on Nov. 1, 2025. Carrico arrested a 21-year-old woman — who was nine months pregnant — for reckless driving after a traffic stop in Buckeye.
The woman told investigators Carrico's demeanor was hostile from the start of the stop. She said Carrico questioned her attitude, made demeaning comments during a pat-down search, and told her family that whether she went to jail depended on her attitude. Internal records obtained via public records request say Carrico made comments, including calling the woman "gross," "nasty," and "an ass" — all captured on body camera.
The woman was handcuffed behind her back and transported to the Buckeye Police Department booking facility. Surveillance video from inside the booking room shows Carrico pushing the pregnant woman against a wall and dragging her back to a bench.
"She pushed me against the wall and the corner," the woman told investigators.
The woman told investigators that after being forced onto the bench, she felt a strike to her head.
"She gets me to sit down and she just hits me," the woman said.
The surveillance video shows Carrico swinging her arm toward the woman's head.
The woman was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a contusion and evaluated for a possible concussion. The following day, she described her injuries to investigators.
"I got scratches right here, a bruise right here, scratch on my neck. I got like two things on my back," she said.
According to internal investigation documents obtained by ABC15 in a public records request, Carrico never documented the use of force in her original incident report. When investigators asked her about it, she at one point said she forgot the force happened, at another point saying she thought she had included it. When her report was read aloud during her second interview, investigators confirmed there was no mention of any force directed at the woman's head or face anywhere in the document.
When investigators played Carrico the video during her interview, she agreed it did not look good.
"I think the video looks really ugly," Carrico said. "But I will say I've never once in my life open-hand slapped or struck anybody. And in this moment, I just think the only thing that I did was revert to my training."
Her supervising sergeant reviewed the same video and reached a different conclusion. Internal records show he described Carrico's actions as "very aggressive" and said they were "definitely over the top and unnecessary."
When asked during her interview whether her conduct met department standards, Carrico said the answer was not simple.
"It's not a simple yes or no," she said. "It's based off everything leading up to that point, and I don't think that the public treating us like crap means that we have to sit there and be quiet and take it either."
She also acknowledged her conduct was not flawless.
"There's always room for improvement," Carrico said, "and I know everything I did here is not perfect."
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The second incident: A man at a Phoenix jail facility
Less than 3 months later, on Jan. 25, 2026, Carrico was involved in a second use-of-force incident.
Carrico and her officer-in-training were transporting a man to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Intake, Transfer, and Release facility in Phoenix after he had been medically cleared at a hospital. The man had originally been arrested on a domestic violence aggravated assault charge by a different officer. Carrico was acting only as a transport officer.
Surveillance video from the jail's parking area shows the man headbutting Carrico as he exited the patrol vehicle. Carrico then took him to the ground.
"After I bumped her, she threw me to the ground," the man later told investigators.
Once inside the facility, the situation escalated. The man later described what happened.
"She tore my shirt," he told investigators. "She punched me in the face when I was already restrained."
During Carrico's administrative interview, investigators played her audio of what she allegedly said to the man during the encounter inside the jail.
"I will smash you so hard into this [expletive] wall you won't see straight," Carrico is heard saying on the recording. "Do you understand me? Do you [expletive] understand?"
Surveillance video from inside the facility then shows Carrico punching the man in the head while he was handcuffed and being escorted by 2 officers. Per the report, the department's own defensive tactics expert reviewed the footage and concluded the punch was not consistent with department training and not objectively reasonable under department policy.
A Buckeye sergeant who independently reviewed the surveillance footage told investigators: "I didn't see anything he did to provoke or elicit a response like that from the officer."
Internal records show Carrico later told investigators she used a technique called a "distraction strike" — something she said she learned during her nearly 10 years with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department before joining Buckeye PD in 2023. She acknowledged the technique is not taught by Buckeye PD.
"You don't unlearn how to be a police officer just because you went somewhere new," Carrico said during her interview.
What happens next
Carrico was placed on unpaid administrative leave the day after her May 27 indictment and resigned from the Buckeye Police Department on June 4th. Her not guilty arraignment took place earlier this week. Her trial is scheduled for November.
ABC15 reached out to the Buckeye Police Department for comment. This story will be updated with any response.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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