GRIFFIN, Ga. — Griffin Police are responding to a family's allegations of misuse of force during a traffic stop after video of the incident posted by a passenger in the car went viral online.
According to the Griffin police report, an officer observed a white SUV pull up to a blue Dodge truck parked in the driveway of a home on N. 19th St. The man in the blue truck was recognized by the officer as Joshua McDowell, 32, who had been arrested by the same officer for possession of marijuana and had been charged with intent to distribute. According to the police report, McDowell was out on bond and was driving the same blue truck in the previous arrest.
The officer said he observed a “hand to hand transaction” that appeared to be a drug deal. The officer claimed to see the driver of the SUV exchange cash with McDowell for what appeared to be narcotics. The officer watched McDowell pull out of the driveway and he pulled the blue truck over at 16th and Solomon.
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That’s when things get complicated, according to Shakera Davis, who was with McDowell in the blue truck.
“Hey, let me see your hands, Joshua,” the officer said, according to the officer's body camera video which was obtained by 11Alive. “Come out of the car man. What you doing?”
McDowell got out. The officer told McDowell he “reeked” of weed. The officer placed a cuff on McDowell's left wrist and, as the officer was telling McDowell to put his right hand behind his back, the body camera jumped and suddenly turned off. According to a statement from Griffin Police, the officer’s body cam fell off and stopped working when McDowell tried to run away and the officer struggled to hold on to McDowell.
That’s when Davis said she pulled out her cell phone and pressed record.
“When [the officer] came to the car, he didn’t ask for no license, no registration. He called him by his name and told him to put his hands against the car,” Davis said. “He started slamming him into the car, which is when I pulled out my phone because that’s not right ... He abused that man.”
In the video, the officer is seen pulling McDowell by the front of his shirt, pushing him into the door jam and pointing a taser in his face.
“Stop, stop!” The officer can be heard saying in the video. “I’m about to f---ing tase you, stop!”
“Where is your body camera?” McDowell said repeatedly as the officer ordered him to turn around.
In the next video that Davis recorded moments later, McDowell is lying on the pavement with two officers over him, subduing him, and McDowell is shouting that his arm was broken.
“He had his hands up the whole time. My video cut off and didn’t even get half of what was supposed to be shown,” Davis said. “If you couldn’t tell, the man got choked. It didn’t show the other officer that came on the scene … he came up and grabbed his leg and they slammed his head. He already said his arm is broke. It was a lot that happened that no one saw. It scared me.”
According to the Griffin Police report, McDowell attempted to break free and the other officer grabbed his legs and “assisted him to the ground.”
The officer was treated for a hand injury after landing on the pavement. McDowell was also treated for a hand injury.
Police searched his vehicle and the officer reports finding 60 doses of Ecstasy, or MDMA, and 10 grams of marijuana. Davis and McDowell both denied the drugs were theirs. They were taken to the police station and McDowell was arrested for possession of meth with intent to distribute and possession of marijuana, along with resisting arrest.
Davis said the officer seemed to be targeting McDowell by pulling him over in the first place.
“That’s profiling him because of his past. You can’t profile nobody. He didn’t try to run, I wouldn’t lie,” Davis said. “I’m not against him or any police officer, but he didn’t try to resist.”
Police said McDowell was known to the officer because of previous drug arrests, and because McDowell had tried to run away during a previous arrest.
McDowell’s fiancé, Quantas Terrell, said Davis’ video of the incident was “heartbreaking” to watch.
“It still doesn’t make sense to me. The officer said Joshua was trying to run, which he wasn’t. He said that when the officer told him to put his hands behind his back … he put the cuff on the left hand, but the right hand … he said he couldn’t do it because it was broke,” Terrell said. “So he was trying to force him into the door.”
Terrell thinks that the officer who conducted the traffic stop has a “personal vendetta” against McDowell because he fled when the same officer tried to arrest him for possession of marijuana last year. She adamantly denied that McDowell uses or deals Ecstasy.
“I think they planted it in there,” Davis said. “Everyone around Griffin knows, yes, Joshua smokes marijuana. But Ecstacy? No. I’ve known him since 2005 and I’ve never seen him with none, taking none or nothing.”
After Davis’ video surfaced online, Griffin Police issued a statement describing the department's investigation of the arrest, and the findings.
“The passenger in McDowell’s vehicle posted a video to social media, which shows one handcuff on McDowell and the officer’s body camera out of its proper place,” the release said. “This video does capture an expletive-laden threat of use of force [by the officer], but this 'threat' did prevent an 'actual' use of force. This video does not depict McDowell being struck, beaten and otherwise physically mistreated other than the minimum amount of control needed to effect his lawful arrest.”
The department also concluded that the officer would have been justified to use even more force, under the circumstances.
“A review of this matter has been conducted, and it was found that the officer’s actions were reasonable under the circumstances and his use of force was not excessive,” Griffin Police stated. “The expletives used, while not desirable, communicated the severity of the situation in a manner that contributed to an avoidance of force escalation.”
Davis said that the Griffin Police Department is protecting its own – and she believes the department is not doing what’s right.
“I would like them to tell the truth. [The officer] did his job wrong that day,” Davis said.
Terrell said she wants Griffin Police to re-open the investigation into the arrest, and discipline the officers involved.
“Y’all can’t keep doing this to people. Yes, people commit crimes all the time, but there are ways to go about [arresting them],” Terrell said. “You gotta stop using your badge and the authority that you have to abuse people because that’s what that is.”
Police continue to investigate their drug case against McDowell.