Ohio Police Release Videos of Officer Using Taser During Arrest

Department says man, a sex offender, ignored 25 commands to stop

The video shows a Wickliffe officer using a Taser (Wickliffe Police Department)

Police in Ohio released videos of an officer using a Taser during a February arrest after people demanded to see the videos on social media.

The Wickliffe Police Department said that the officer attempted to stop a driver, who was wanted by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department on warrants including failing to register as a sex offender and probation violation.

The driver, who wasn’t named, pulled into an apartment complex and walked toward an officer while refusing numerous commands to show his hands and stop, police said in a statement.

The female officer then tries to physically apprehend the man. However, he continued to ignore her commands, according to the office.

“As can be seen in the videos, an officer tells the suspect to stop, get back into his car, show his hands or get on the ground more than 25 times, but the male ignores the commands of the officer,” the department wrote on Facebook.

The video can be seen below (Warning: Potentially disturbing footage):

After the female officer tried controlling the man, “a second male comes out of the apartment while the officer is still alone and trying to control the driver,” said the department. “The female officer weighs about 120 pounds, while the two males combined likely weigh in excess of 400 pounds.”

A second officer arrives and tells the man five times to get on the ground, warning him that he'll be shot with a Taser. The suspect doesn’t comply with the commands, according to the police department.

“Only at that point is the male tased. The officer delivered one shock from the taser to the suspect, not multiple ones as some have claimed,” the statement said.

The suspect was then apprehended by the officers before being taken to Lake West Hospital. He was treated and then was released back into police custody, according to the department’s statement.

A day later, the suspect pled guilty to obstructing official business and resisting arrest. For that, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail, and the second male in the video was released without charges “after he calmed down,” the department said.

“The incident occurred in February of this year, but has been widely circulated in the last week or so, likely as a result of the heightened scrutiny of police conduct. We have received numerous FB messages regarding this incident, and; as a result, decided to take the unusual step of releasing the dash and body camera video of the incident, as they are longer than the video clip being circulated, and we believe tell a fuller story of the encounter. We are publishing this to be accountable and transparent. We warn you that the suspect and a second male use graphic language,” the department wrote.

The Wickliffe Police Department added that the use of force displayed by the officer in the arrest was in line with the department’s standards.

“Force is never pretty and can be upsetting to watch, but the reality is that on occasion, officers are left with little choice but to use force to affect an arrest,” it said.