Videos show Graham police officers wrestling, pinning young man to the ground
Videos posted on social media on Friday show police officers in Graham wrestling a young man to the ground and trying to pin him down while a person filming the incident urges officers to stop.
An unnamed user posted the videos to Instagram Friday night, and wrote in the post that the man being restrained by the officers in the video is their younger brother, and that the incident “all started over a traffic stop.”
At least three people, two of whom appear to refer to the man being restrained as their brother, follow officers and the young man toward an apartment building. The man, who is wearing a gray sweatshirt and black shorts, appears to hold up his cell phone when an officer suddenly tries to wrestle the man to the ground.
The unnamed man recording the video shouts out multiple times that the man in the gray sweatshirt being restrained “is my little brother.” The officer is seen struggling to pin the man down to the ground, and at one point, appears to have his arm around the man’s neck, before he brings him down.
The man appears to resist the officer, and a second officer joins in trying to restrain him. At this point, the man filming the video repeatedly tells the man he identified as his brother to “chill out.”
The two officers continue to try to restrain the man in the gray sweatshirt, with one of them putting his weight on the man while the other appears to try to cuff him. Other officers repeatedly tell the man filming the video and other people standing nearby to “stand back” and “back up.”
A second video posted by the same Instagram user appears to show the officer who initially wrestled the man to the ground restraining him against a police SUV. The man being restrained tells the man filming that the officer is “choking me,” and appears to try and strike the officer with his knee, at which point the officer turns him around and holds him up against the SUV.
An on-duty supervisor at the Graham Police Department referred The News & Observer to a news release the department issued Friday.
In the release, Graham police said officers were conducting a traffic stop at the Pines Apartments in the 700 block of Ivey Road at around 2:20 p.m. Thursday, when a small group of people approached and tried to interfere with the traffic stop.
“The individuals were ordered to back away from the traffic stop to ensure safety and provide officers an opportunity to conduct their field investigation,” the release said. “Several individuals refused to cooperate and continued to interfere with the vehicle stop prompting officers to arrest three of the individuals involved.”
According to the press release, the department has “put a greater focus” on the apartments in response to the large number of complaints from residents. The release says police were called to the apartment complex 233 times between Jan. 1, 2021, and March 2022.
A spokesperson for Graham police did not return a message from the N&O, and the on-duty supervisor said the police department would not be able to provide further comment on the incident until Monday.
The News & Observer last year published Graham police bodycam video that captured Graham officers being openly hostile to mostly African American participants in a march-to-the-polls event in 2020. Graham that year was the site of one of the most active Black Lives Matter protests in the country.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREThis is a breaking news story
In a breaking news situation, facts may be unclear and details may change as the story develops. Our reporters are working to get information as quickly and accurately as possible. This story may be updated as more information becomes available. Refresh this page for the most up-to-date report.
This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 6:39 PM.
