The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday released body camera footage showing an officer punching a handcuffed man during a confrontation over double parking in Watts on Sunday, amid another controversial incident. Use of force incidents occurred.
The video was released as officials were busy responding to a separate incident Sunday in South Los Angeles that showed an LAPD officer apparently choking a 17-year-old boy while trying to restrain him during an arrest. the neck of a 17-year-old boy. Both incidents are under investigation.
In the Watts case, video of the incident was initially captured on a cellphone by a bystander. Alexander Donta Mitchell, 28, claims he was assaulted, and his attorney, Brad Gage, said the officer’s actions left his client with a broken nose. Pain in the jaw.
The 56-minute police body camera video shows two officers approaching Mitchell’s silver Dodge Charger, which was parked side by side at the corner of 113th Street and Graham Avenue and facing the wrong direction.
An officer used a flashlight to look at the tinted window on the driver’s side of the vehicle. A second officer stood by the front passenger side door.
Mitchell was later seen rolling down his window and asking the officer next to him what was wrong. Police told him he was double parked and facing the wrong way before opening the driver’s door.
Mitchell then told the officer he was not on probation or parole and began questioning why the officer opened the door.
“Because you ignored me,” the officer said.
“I’m not ignoring you,” Mitchell said.
The officer then asked Mitchell to get out of the car, which he did. But things turned hostile when the officer said he needed to pat Mitchell on the back.
“But, for what?” Mitchell asked the officer repeatedly.
“For the weapons,” the officer told him.
“I have nothing on me.”
At this point, two officers grabbed Mitchell’s arms and placed them behind his back in an attempt to handcuff him.
“Get your hands off me,” he told them. “I have nothing, I can sit in the car. I’m not on probation or parole… I know my rights.
Nearly five minutes into the video, police repeatedly tell Mitchell to put his arms behind his back. Police also instructed the gathered crowd to move back. At this point, the crowd can be heard reacting to an officer’s fist, which at least one bystander said she saw on video.
The video also captures the moment Mitchell told police he was having trouble breathing before Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics arrived at the scene.
Gage said the body camera footage “further proves why police
There is no justification for handcuffing Alex or beating him. He said his client was just sitting in his car talking on the phone.
“There is no reason to arrest people for double parking,” Gage said. “The police opened the door for no reason. The whole thing could have been avoided if they had asked him to move the car.
Gage said there were no other “unshown punches” shown in the video.
Mitchell was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice and resisting arrest and later released on misdemeanor charges.
Ed Obayashi, an attorney and deputy county commissioner who specializes in law enforcement use of force in Modoc County, said after viewing the video that the incident could have been easily avoided, considering Mitchell was just sitting in a double-parked car. But he said the official decided to take a more aggressive approach.
“The opening of the car door triggered it; from that point on, things escalated,” he said. “If there is resistance, there will be resist. [Mitchell] There is no war here.
Meanwhile, in a second incident in South Los Angeles, video captured by a bystander showed an officer putting his arms around a shirtless teen’s head and holding him close, police said in a news release. Rolling on the ground.
The incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Sunday near the intersection of 70th and Main streets, when police saw someone smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol next to multiple vehicles parked side by side.
Police said they saw the teen appear to place an unknown object under the front passenger seat of the vehicle he was riding in and then run away. Police said that after a foot pursuit, “an unspecified use of force occurred.”
Police struggled with the teen and at one point used a stun device to shock him, but it was ineffective, according to the release.
More officers arrived and arrested the suspect, the release said.
The teen was being held at the Los Padrinos Juvenile Prison on suspicion of resisting police, according to the department.
It was unclear whether he had a lawyer. The two officers at the scene suffered cuts to their hands, face and knees and were taken to the hospital, the release said.
