Updated 3:00 pm:
Teodulo Sanchez was heading home from work on Friday when he noticed he was being followed by a police car.
After about 25 minutes, an officer pulled him over, he told BuzzFeed News. Sanchez said he decided to record the police stop and the video above, which is in Spanish, shows the tense confrontation, where the Buckeye, Arizona, police officer repeatedly threatens to kill Sanchez.
"Weapons? No weapons in your car? Keep your hands where I can see them, don't move. You hear me? You have a license? Show me your license now. If you do something, I'll kill you here. You understand?"
This is when the police officer — who is also Latino — put a gun in his face, Sanchez told BuzzFeed News.
Police dispute Sanchez's version of events, saying the officer never pointed his gun at him. They say they received reliable information from another law enforcement agency that a gold, four-door Honda was carrying a large amount of illegal narcotics with a possible armed occupant and this is the reason the officer was on alert.
In the video, Sanchez tells the officer he was coming from work and after hearing the threat tells him that he is recording him.
"You don't have weapons in the car? You sure? Is there anything in the car? What's in here? Just tools? You sure? OK. Don't get out. Stay there. If you move, I'll shoot you."
Sanchez, is an undocumented immigrant with two U.S. citizen children ages 5 and 10. His father is also a U.S. citizen, but Sanchez's attempt to gain legal status through his father with a notary public failed. He is now in deportation proceedings.
He said he was never told why he was stopped. Police say his vehicle was observed to have committed a traffic violation on State Route 85.
"He kept telling me not to move my hands, he was really aggressive, there was no reason to put his gun in my face," Sanchez told BuzzFeed News.
"I thought he was going to kill me, he was really upset."
Sanchez alleged that when another officer arrived and asked what was going on, the officer who had stopped him said that Sanchez kept moving his hands and kept trying to get out of the car, which is not shown in the video except when the officer asks him to get his registration.
Buckeye police confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the officer was Latino and said in a press release that the video is 1:15 seconds of a 20-minute traffic stop.
"Mr. Sanchez continued making furtive movements in the vehicle before the officer approached the passenger side window," the release said. "With the information that the driver may be armed, and the fact that he was not obeying the officer's comments, this heightened the officer's concern for safety."
Police said they asked Sanchez to exit the vehicle and he complied, and they sat him on the curb where he asked for an explanation and was told why he was stopped. They asked to search his vehicle, he said yes, and he was released when no illegal narcotics or weapons were located.
The video was put on YouTube by DREAMer and national immigration activist Erika Andiola, who said she posted it to show why fear is pervasive in the undocumented community.
"The undocumented community is already afraid of what law enforcement can do to them due to the huge collaboration they have with ICE," she said. "Imagine having cops threaten us with guns now! Unacceptable."
Sanchez said he gave her the video so people can see how immigrants are treated in Arizona.
"I did it so people could see what happens, they're killing too many people in America for nothing these days" he said. "If you look Mexican, they'll stop you."
