A cellphone video showing an Atlanta police officer taking a woman to the ground during a recent arrest at a Buckhead park circulated widely online this week.
A 90-second clip posted to social media Wednesday captured portions of an exchange between the officer and two people he encountered in Shady Valley Park after hours Monday night.
The officer is seen being forceful with a woman who ignored his orders to put her hands behind her back as he attempted to take her into custody for refusing to sign a citation for the ordinance violation. At one point, the officer tripped the woman to the pavement. Seconds later, he pointed his stun gun at her head as he sat atop her on the ground, the video showed.
The clip stirred outrage among many online observers, who criticized the officer for using excessive force. The backlash also prompted a full-throated response from the Atlanta Police Department as well as a review by agency brass this week.
A police report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified the officer as Bill Brooks, a nearly six-year veteran hired by the APD in September 2016.
The AJC is not publishing the names of the man and woman involved because neither were charged with a felony.
The department released an hour’s worth of body camera footage from the incident. Police officials also issued a statement Wednesday afternoon refuting the notion that Brooks’ use of force was excessive.
“Upon learning of the incident, members of the APD’s command staff immediately began reviewing the incident to determine the facts surrounding the case,” the statement said. “It has become immediately clear there is more to this story than the short social media video shows and the decision has been made to release the body worn camera footage from the arresting officer.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following video may be disturbing to some readers.
An APD spokesman said Brooks was not disciplined or placed on administrative leave following the incident.
In their response, police officials said the department has heightened patrols around the city’s parks as a safety precaution following two recent homicides.
Lamarcus Griffin, 36, died Aug. 2 after police discovered him shot multiple times at Wilson Mill Park. Then on Sunday night, two people were killed and four others injured, including a 6-year-old girl, when gunshots erupted during a community ballgame at Rosa L. Burney Park.
Police have not announced any suspects in either investigation.
Monday’s incident unfolded around 11:50 p.m. at Shady Valley Park, according to the police statement. The park closed at 11 p.m.
Brooks was doing safety checks when he spotted a man and a woman. He issued both of them citations for being in the park after hours, in violation of a city ordinance.
The man signed his copy, but the woman refused multiple times and requested the officer’s badge number, the bodycam shows. Brooks explained to both that if they refused to sign the citation, they’d be taken to jail.
A physical encounter ensued when Brooks moved in to arrest the woman. Police said she refused to put her hands behind her back and it wasn’t until another officer arrived that police were able to detain her.
The officer’s bodycam showed she initially refused, but later agreed to sign the citation after the officer told her he was arresting her.
“Several unnecessary decisions, that were entirely out of our control, resulted in a physical altercation with an officer and the physical arrest of this individual,” the police statement said.
The 90-second video snippet was posted online by an Instagram user who identified herself as the woman’s sister.
“Are we not aloud (sic) to ask questions about our rights without ego taking over,” the poster wrote. “Why was a taser pulled out? Why was she frisked by a male officer?
By Friday, the post had more than 5,600 views. The AJC reached out to her through her Instagram page, but she did not respond to requests for comment. The woman in the video also could not be reached.
According to the police report, the woman was treated at Grady Detention Center for pain in her wrist, leg, back and knee. After being discharged, she was booked into the Atlanta city jail, police said.
“No one wants to see a fight between an officer and a citizen, but a more in-depth review of the incident, using the body-worn camera footage, shows the officer repeatedly ask the female to comply by placing her hands behind her back and the footage shows she refuses each time,” officials concluded in their statement.
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