California's Vallejo Police Department is has launched an investigation after a Marine veteran accused one of its officers of excessive force.
Adrian Burrell, a Black man, walked out of his home on January 28 and came across a tense scene between his cousin and Officer David McLaughlin. Burrell's cousin sat on his motorcycle with his hands up as McLaughlin circled him with a hand resting on his service weapon. According to ABC 30, Burrell remained on his porch and attempted to assist his relative.
Speaking of "unarmed black men", this gentleman was arrested for simply filming a police officer on his own property. This just happened yesterday in Vallejo, CA. pic.twitter.com/vZNV4GGgtv
— Shavaughnceo (@shavaughnceo) January 31, 2019
"I had both hands up kind of like this and said, 'He can't hear you. He has his helmet on,'" Burrell told ABC7. "Kind of like chill out. He [McLaughlin] tells me to go back inside of my house."
Desperate to help his cousin, Burrell refused to go inside and instead pulled out his cellphone to record the incident. McLaughlin ordered the cousin to keep his hands raised as he walked toward Burrell.
"You're interfering with me my man? You're interfering. You're going to get one from the back of the car," McLaughlin said in the video.
"That's fine," Burrell replied. The video goes out of focus and ended with the 28-year-old in handcuffs.
"Stop resisting me, or I'm going to put you on the ground," McLaughlin demanded.
"I'm not resisting. Put me on the ground," Burrell responded.
Burrell said McLaughlin’s aggression left him with a concussion and numbness in his fingers resulting from the cuffs piercing his skin.
"He handcuffed me and threw me into this wall here," Burrell recalled. "Swung my body into that pole there, where I knocked my head. He took me to the car and detained me and told me I was going to jail."
Burrell never made it to jail, however. He asked McLaughlin to cuff him from the front due to injuries from his time in the Marine Corps. Burrell was honorably discharged in 2012. The officer changed his plans when he realized he was arresting a veteran. McLaughlin uncuffed him and thanked him for his service.
The experience left Burrell traumatized.
"I felt violated," Burrell said. "I felt like my humanity was taken away from me."
The 28-year-old hired civil rights attorney John Burris who called McLaughlin’s behavior "egregious,” according to NBC Bay Area.
"The Vallejo Police Department does have a reputation certainly in my office of being brutal and routinely using excessive force on citizens," Burris said.
The incident doesn't mark the first time McLaughlin has been accused of behaving violently. Last August, he drew his weapon at a restaurant and pointed it at Santiago Hutchins who was there to celebrate his child’s birthday. He was off-duty at the time.
“We made eye contact," Hutchins told KTVU. "He asked me what I was looking at and I asked him what he wanted. We got into a verbal altercation. At that point, he pulled out his gun."
Hutchins had no clue McLaughlin was a police officer. When members of the Walnut Creek Police Department arrived, Hutchins was restrained by several officers while McLaughlin struck him several times. He was left bloodied and required several stitches.
"He kept grabbing my head and slamming it into the concrete," said Hutchins. Hutchins was arrested, but the charges were dropped. Officers claimed Hutchins became aggressive, but an investigation didn’t find any evidence to support the claim.
McLaughlin has also been sued for violating civilians’ civil rights and has participated in two officer-involved shootings since he joined the force in 2014.
The Vallejo Police Department said it had begun an investigation into the incident.
"Internal Affairs Investigators have already contacted one of the subjects in the video to gather further information," the statement read. "The entire incident was captured on the police officer's body camera and will be reviewed in connection with this investigation."
McLaughlin is still on patrol, and that worries Burrell.
“How much proof does it take?” he asked. “What do you want? Do you want a couple of dead bodies?”
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