A police officer in Michigan has been suspended without pay after deploying his Taser on a man holding his 2-month-old son — a “questionable decision,” according to the department’s top cop.
A 4-minute cellphone video posted to Facebook shows a chaotic scene in Westland, where Raymurez Brown and his girlfriend were met by police after multiple reports were received that they assaulted a woman and damaged her car.
“What is the crime right now?” Brown asks an officer, who tells him he’s investigating a property damage report. “Where’s the property that was damaged? Where is it? Where is the damaged property?”
A baby is heard crying loudly in the background as an officer then warns Brown that he is “2 seconds away” from being arrested for being drunk in public, which Brown denies, saying he doesn’t drink.
“Enough, enough,” an officer then tells Brown as he continues to forcefully deny the allegations.
“This man is flashing a light in my eye for no reason,” Brown says as the officer tells him and others surrounding him to “get the baby out of here,” according to the video.
“That’s my child, he can be exactly where he’s at,” Brown said. “Give me my child, give me my child, give me my child. This my son, he ain’t gotta go nowhere, n—a. Know that.”
Several officers then warn Brown to calm down, telling him that he’ll be arrested for disorderly conduct if he continues to raise his voice. At least four officers then surround Brown as he holds his son, one of whom deploys his Taser, according to the video.
“And they tase him with the baby in his hands?” a person off-camera screams. “Y’all some, oh my God!”
A woman believed to be the child’s mother is then handed the infant by officers who grab the boy as they hit Brown with a Taser, video shows.
“What are y’all doing, bro?” one witness asks a responding officer. “Y’all still tasing him, man.”
“So what?” the officer responds. “Get back!”
Brown, who had several open arrest warrants, was later charged with disturbing the peace, hindering a police investigation, damage to personal property, neglect of a minor, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault and battery on a police officer, MLive.com reports.
Westland Police Chief Jeff Jedrusik said Brown’s arrest was appropriate, as well as the use of a Taser due to his non-compliance.
“However I feel that the use of the Taser at that time, while he was holding the child, was a questionable decision,” Jedrusik announced on Facebook. “We are all thankful that the child was not injured.”
The unidentified officer who used his department-issued Taser has been suspended for 30 days without pay, Jedrusik said.
“This incident will give us the opportunity to review all of our use of force policies and our department’s training of those policies,” the statement continued. “We are all aware that being a police officer is a difficult job. This is especially true when the persons they encounter are non-compliant.”
