A Phoenix police sergeant attended a student-led anti-ICE demonstration armed, masked, and, according to a Chandler Police Department report, with an alleged plan to bait juvenile protesters into assaulting him so they could be arrested en masse.
FOX 10 Phoenix investigator Justin Lum obtained the full Chandler PD report, which reveals details the department's initial press release did not disclose. The officer at the centre of the incident, Sergeant Dusten Mullen, has been with Phoenix PD since at least 2011 and works as a community action sergeant at the Sound Mountain Precinct.
Mullen is now under review by the Phoenix Police Professional Standards Bureau. A teenage girl who was detained at the scene had misdemeanour charges submitted against her, but the Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to prosecute on the grounds there was 'no reasonable likelihood of conviction.'
Chandler Report Describes Armed, Masked Counter-Protester With a Strategy
When a Chandler officer arrived at the student march, a protester pointed out a man wearing a full-face mask who had been seen retreating behind a palm tree. The officer confirmed the man was Sergeant Dusten Mullen, off-duty and out of jurisdiction. According to the Chandler PD report, Mullen was dressed in a black shirt, blue jeans, and a baseball hat. A loaded handgun was holstered on one hip, and two additional handgun magazines were clipped to the other.
When the officer approached, Mullen was already in a verbal argument with students, telling them to 'grow up and act like adults.' He told the officer he was unhappy because students had been flying flags that struck his car. The responding Chandler officer later stated in the report that he never saw any flags make contact with the vehicle.
Students began to grow agitated and followed Mullen, many believing he was an undercover ICE agent. The Chandler officer advised him to leave the area due to the volatility of the situation. It was at that point that Mullen allegedly stated his reason for being there. The Chandler PD report documents him saying: 'My plan is legitimately to just let them all assault me and you guys arrest them all, and I'll keep it on film. I also have other people filming from a distance.'
Mullen also allegedly told the officer that more counter-protesters were en route, some of them armed with rifles. He said his broader goal was to 'get all these kids in jail if they want to break the law.' The Chandler officer did not verify whether additional armed individuals arrived.
A Teen Is Detained, Then Charges Collapse At The County Level
Shortly after Mullen's exchange with Chandler police, a teenage girl allegedly threw a cup of water at him from a short distance. This detail matters: Chandler PD's initial press release described the object as a water bottle, a characterisation that appeared in early reporting and was later contradicted by the department's own internal report, which the FOX 10 investigation confirmed describes it as a cup of water. Mullen told Chandler PD he wished to press charges, and the girl was detained on the spot.
The girl was not taken to a facility. She was held at the protest site until her mother arrived and collected her. Police submitted misdemeanour charges of assault and disorderly conduct to juvenile court. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office then reviewed the case and declined to move forward, citing 'no reasonable likelihood of conviction.' No charges were ever filed against the student.
Mullen was escorted from the protest site by Chandler police. Aside from the incident involving the student, officers characterised the broader walkout demonstration as largely peaceful. A separate incident during the same march, involving an unidentified white SUV that pushed through a crowd of protesters at an intersection, remained under investigation by Chandler detectives at the time of the FOX 10 report's publication.
Phoenix PD Opens Internal Review As Mullen's Attorney Cites Process
Phoenix PD Commander Mercedes Fortune issued a formal statement on the matter. 'The Phoenix Police Department has been made aware of an incident involving Sergeant Mullen that took place while off-duty in a neighbouring city,' Fortune said. 'The matter is currently under review by our Professional Standards Bureau. Sergeant Mullen remains an employee of the department.' The department offered no further comment on the nature of the review or its potential outcomes.
Mullen's attorney, Steve Serbalik, confirmed his client's cooperation with the investigation. 'Sgt. Mullen cooperated with this investigation as a condition of his employment, and out of respect for the internal affairs process, he cannot comment on the story further,' Serbalik said. 'He hopes that PSB's investigation will consider all factors, and result in a fair report.' Serbalik did not address the specific language attributed to Mullen in the Chandler police report.
The Phoenix PD has been under scrutiny on officer conduct for some time. In March 2026, Phoenix Police Chief Matthew Giordano confirmed that three department employees violated policy in a separate case involving protesters wrongfully charged as a criminal street gang following a 2020 arrest. All three had since left the department. The Professional Standards Bureau is the same internal body now reviewing Mullen's conduct.
A sergeant whose job title includes 'community action' allegedly showed up at a high school protest with a loaded weapon, a covered face, and a plan to engineer arrests of children — and it took an investigative report, not a departmental disclosure, to make that known.
