DC police are investigating a Thursday night incident captured on viral video, which shows officers pushing one man against a fence and knocking another down during a chaotic confrontation. A city council member, a local activist and the mother of one of those involved said they believe police acted inappropriately.
The two men involved in the incident, Tejuan Coleman, 30, and Ty’jon Jackson, 23, are facing drug possession with intent to distribute charges. Coleman was also charged with assault on a police officer, and Jackson was also charged with threatening to cause bodily harm to a police officer, according to charging documents.
DC Council Member Trayon White, Sr. (D-Ward 8), who responded to the scene immediately after the incident that night, denounced the police actions.
“There is no question that MPD officers used excessive force to make an arrest,” White said in a statement.
The incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. the 3400 block of Stanton Road, SE, when police responded to the sound of gunshots. While touring the area, officers found an unoccupied vehicle with the engine running and a shell casing visible inside, according to a police department statement and charging documents. Police said they later determined the vehicle was stolen.
DC police said a group approached officers as they searched the car, and one of the men — identified as Jackson in charging documents — threatened to “beat up” a policewoman. Police said an officer pushed him against a fence, which was captured on video, and took him into custody.
The police department said in the statement that another man began “assaulting and strangling officers.” In charging documents, authorities said Coleman punched and choked an officer and took another officer’s extendable baton.
Coleman’s mother, Aminah Saladin, denied that her son assaulted or strangled police. She said officers used Mace on her son.
Both men were taken to local hospitals, police said, then transferred to police. custody. They were scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
“I was horrified as a mother,” Saladin said, adding that her son had been “assaulted and locked up by officers” in the past. “Who will protect and serve our community? Instead of being able to sit down with the police, we started to be afraid of the police. Who do we call?
No attorney for Jackson was listed in online court records, and efforts to contact his relatives were not immediately successful.
White, who said he discussed the incident Friday morning with DC Police Chief Robert J. Contee III, said he hopes “these officers are under review and fired if they mess up.” He also emphasized the importance of addressing the violence that initially brought police to the area.
“For those who are outraged by police brutality, we should be,” White said. “But we should be equally outraged by the ongoing shootings in our community every day.”
Nee Nee Taylor, executive director of the local mutual aid and community defense organization Harriet’s Wildest Dreams echoed that sentiment at Friday’s press conference.
“I’m not against trying to prevent and stop crime,” he said. “I am against police violence and brutality.”
Source: news.google.com