Raleigh police officers did ‘what they need to do’ in altercation, union reps say

Police officers acted appropriately in restraining a man who assaulted them, a spokesman for the Raleigh police union said Monday.

Rick Armstrong, a former Raleigh police officer who works for the Raleigh Police Protective Association, also called on Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane and other city leaders to support the officers seen in viral videos in an altercation with a man in Southeast Raleigh on Friday.

“It is part of the process that (Deck-Brown) and the mayor publicly support what these officers did and educate the public of the importance of listening to what police officers say when they ask you to do something,” Armstrong said. “This would not have happened if this individual listened to what these officers asked him to do.”

Videos that have been viewed thousands of times online show 44-year-old Frederick Hall strike and throw punches at several officers near the intersection of Garner Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Community advocates and some residents have said the officers should not have continued to beat Hall after he was on the ground.

Six officers were involved, Armstrong said, and all are members of the police union. The officers have not been placed on administrative leave, he said.

“It’s a deadly situation,” Armstrong said. “It could be deadly. This individual could have killed these officers. The way he was acting, you just don’t know. We have seen it before where individuals assault and kill officers, and these officers had to protect themselves and the citizens of Raleigh. And that’s what they did.”

Police wrote in arrest warrants that Hall bit an officer on her left ankle and punched her in the head, “causing a knot.” The officer’s wrist was also bruised during the struggle, according to police.

Hall punched a second female officer in the head and pinched her legs, causing a large bruise on her head and a scrape on her right elbow, police said.

A third officer reported that Hall punched him in the head and caused scrapes on both knees and a swollen left elbow.

Police say Hall punched a fourth officer in the head and grabbed him by the arm. The officer also had “scraped up and swollen fingers on his left hand, a bruised left shin and a cut and bruised right knee,” according to an arrest warrant.

One officer tackled Hall around the legs and brought him to the ground, where the struggle continued. One officer hit him in the back several times with a baton, another kicked him, and another stomped on his hand.

The officers gave Hall verbal commands, Armstrong said.

“(Hall) escalated the situation,” said Matt Cooper, a Raleigh police detective and president of the Raleigh Police Protective Association. “At that point where it becomes an active assault against the officers, that is the time where officers need to do what they need to do to protect themselves and protect their community.

The altercation began when police saw Hall driving what they considered “a suspicious vehicle with an impaired driver,” according to an arrest warrant.

Investigators have accused Hall of trying to drive away after police stopped him. They say Hall grabbed an officer’s wrist and attempted “to push them away.”

At some point, Hall apparently got out of his vehicle because police have accused him of “leaving the vehicle unattended on a public highway without first stopping the engine and effectively setting the parking brake,” according to an arrest warrant.

Hall was not charged with driving while impaired by alcohol or another substance. He was charged with four felony counts of assault causing physical injury to a law enforcement officer, one misdemeanor count each of resisting a public officer and leaving a vehicle unattended and unsecured. He was also charged with three misdemeanor counts of failing to wear a seat belt, disorderly conduct and assault on a government employee, according to warrants.

Hall was treated for two days at WakeMed Hospital and was taken to the Wake County jail Sunday. He was held under a $45,000 bail.

Prior altercation

Douglas Hall, who is Frederick Hall’s brother, said his brother’s altercation with police Friday might have been triggered by a beating he endured at the hands of law enforcement in 2016. Frederick Hall was beaten during an altercation on Interstate 540, his brother said.

The charges of resisting arrest and assault on a law enforcement officer against Frederick Hall were dismissed in that case.

“That’s probably why he took his shirt off,” Douglas Hall said, referring to Friday’s altercation when his brother was shirtless while struggling with the officers. ”The last time they maced him, pulled his shirt over his head and beat him unconscious.”

The incident has raised the ire of residents and community activists, who held a meeting Friday evening outside The Light House, a nonprofit on Tarboro Street.

Four days before, on Monday afternoon, a Raleigh officer fired two shots in Southeast Raleigh at a fleeing sport utility vehicle that had been reported stolen. Witnesses said the officer shouldn’t have discharged his weapon in a crowded neighborhood. A preliminary report released Friday by police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said the officer believed the driver was going to strike him.

There are some similarities between Frederick Hall’s case and the case of Kyron Hinton, who was beaten by law enforcement in Wake County on April 3. Two North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers and a Wake County sheriff’s deputy have been charged with assault in that case, and the troopers were fired. No Raleigh police officers were disciplined or charged, and an investigation concluded that they did not use excessive force.

Hall and Hinton are both black, and family members say both have mental-health issues. Both cases drew widespread public attention after videos of their encounters with law enforcement were shared on social media.

Diana Powell, founder and director of the nonprofit Justice Served NC, said she ‘s been hearing from observers who say Frederick Hall deserved to be beaten.

“That’s not the question,” said Powell, who intends to hold a protest next month during a city council meeting. “The question is, do we have a problem with law enforcement in our community? It’s a yes or no answer. I would love to ask that question to (Mayor) Nancy McFarlane and the city council members.”

The family

Douglas Hall said WakeMed police rebuffed their efforts to see Frederick on Friday night and threatened family members with arrest.

He said WakeMed police arrested his nephew, Demetriuos Carinous Hannan, 28, for trespassing.

“We left feeling very empty and very disrespected,” said Douglas Hall, a married father of two young daughters. “We asked several times if that was their family member, how would they feel and what would they do? They tried to show compassion, but at the same time it wasn’t compassionate at all. We (were) was very dissatisfied, mostly.”

Frederick Hall’s family tried to see him again Sunday afternoon. His mother, Doris Tomberlin, is a pastor at a church in Jacksonville and went to Raleigh after preaching a worship service.

Tomberlin, who was still wearing her clerical collar, said she visited the jail Sunday because hospital officials told her she could see her son.

“It’s frustrating because they told me I could see my child today,” she said while standing in the parking deck of the detention center. “I just wanted to lay eyes on my child.”

Tomberlin asked her son Douglas Hall to wait outside after a deputy threatened him with arrest. The officer gave her a sheet of paper that listed visiting hours for clergy members: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

“I live in Jacksonville,” Tomberlin said. “It’s not right around the corner.”

Tomberlin said she first saw an account of the beating while watching the 6 p.m. news, but she had no idea it was her son. It was only after traveling from Wilmington later that night that Douglas Hall called and told her it was Frederick.

“I said, ‘What in the world?’” she recalled. “They stop traffic in Jacksonville for the ducks to cross the road and they going to beat a human like that.”

The case is now under review by the Wake County District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has declined comment.

This story was originally published August 20, 2018 at 11:02 AM.