JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A news conference held by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on Monday revealed body-camera footage showing that the man who was tased at EverBank Stadium stated he was going to “kill a cop” and shouted racial slurs at the officer who was attempting to arrest him.
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The findings came after Sheriff T.K. Waters announced that JSO‘s administrative reviews found no officers were in violation of the agency’s policies.
“We hold our officers accountable,” Waters said. “In this case, the cell phone camera footage that has been circulating since Saturday does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding these incidents.”
The first incident the agency discussed involved the video on social media that showed two officers at EverBank Stadium walking up to a man, asking him to leave, and when the man refused to leave, a dispute occurred that involved the man getting tased and put in handcuffs.
JSO said the incident began around 4:20 p.m., when the man, identified as Walter Brown, accused a stadium worker of “kidnapping his children and threatening to kill [the stadium worker.]”
“At this point in time, the stadium worker decided that she did not want to be the victim of a battery, however, she did want JSO to respond and evict the attendee from the stadium,” a JSO spokesman said.
Two JSO officers, Officer Kelly and Officer Bowers, approached Brown upon the stadium worker’s request and asked him to leave the game. Body-camera footage shows Brown did not comply with this request and began resisting.
During his resistance, body-camera footage shows Brown shouting racial slurs at Officer Kelly, who is Black, multiple times and said he was either going to “leave the game or kill a cop.”
“At this point, Walter Brown has just made statements indicating that he intends to use deadly force or great bodily harm against the officers simply because he’s being ejected from the stadium,” JSO said.
Footage also shows Brown attempting to reach for Kelly’s gun, which the officer communicated to Officer Bowers.
A struggle ensued between the officers and Brown until the officers could subdue him, and JSO said he was taken for treatment of his injuries once he was placed in handcuffs.
Sheriff Waters added that while force was undeniably used in the incident, and can sometimes get “ugly,” it does not mean it was “unlawful or contrary to policy.”
JSO said the administrative review process remains ongoing, and if any additional information comes in, JSO will take it into account.
The agency then began breaking down the second viral incident, which involved two Georgia-Florida game attendees and two separate officers.
Breakdown of second viral incident
The second incident explained by JSO occurred around 6:45 p.m. and involved three men, Michael Long, Anthony Long, Brandon Boley, and several officers.
The agency began its explanation by showing the now-viral video that shows one JSO officer on top of a person while another officer punches a man multiple times in the back of the head.
JSO said the three men were causing issues with some fans who told a stadium worker that they felt unsafe.
“These men were making threats toward other fans, they were getting in people’s faces, and creating an unsafe environment,” JSO said. The agency added that the stadium worker tried to engage them “multiple times” and provided “multiple warnings” to the men, but they refused to heed her advice.
In the body-cam footage, officers can be seen approaching the men, contacting the stadium worker who confirms that he wants the three men ejected, and asking the men calmly to leave the stadium.
After being asked to leave, one of the men tells the police that he was “just having fun” and that he and his friends are “great guys.” The men continue to linger by their seats when one police officer says, “You guys are going to jail, let‘s go,” to which one of the men says, “I don’t care.”
As an officer attempts to escort the men out of the stadium, one of them touches the officer on his arm, which prompts the officer to say, “Don’t touch me” multiple times.
One of the men states that he won‘t be leaving the stadium unless the officers take two other men who appear to have come to the game with him. An officer approaches the man, saying, “You‘re not going?” The officer then attempts to physically get the man out of the row, the man pulls his hands back, pushes the officer’s hands away, and a struggle ensues.
Body-camera footage shows one of the men, later identified as Anthony Long, wrapping his arms around the arresting officer before being taken to the ground and placed in handcuffs. As the suspect is on the floor, he yells, “I can‘t move“ and ”I didn’t do anything."
“It‘s one thing to say you’re not doing something wrong when you may actually be doing something wrong,” JSO said. “Your words do not equal your actions.”
JSO said the arresting officer, Sergeant Beasley, was using force to combat the force being used against him.
“You can‘t just touch an officer and then say you’re not doing anything wrong,” JSO said.
JSO continued to explain other angles of the altercation posted to social media that didn‘t provide the full context of the interaction between officers and the fans. In one instance, the agency showed how the beginning of a clip on social media had been altered to remove footage that showed one of the men putting his hands in an officer’s face, furthering the notion that the officers were using force to combat force.
Sheriff Waters concluded the conference with a reminder that “what you see on social media is not a real depiction of what is going on,” and that in both instances, the men were “aggressive” and “non-compliant.”
“As a leader of this agency, I will not remain silent while important facts and information [are] buried to advance an anti-police agenda,” Waters said. “Won’t do it. Not going to happen.”
Waters added that in total, eight people were arrested at the Georgia-Florida game and 35 people were ejected, but outside of the incidents circulating social media, no other situations escalated to this level.
The sheriff also said that he thought it was “very important” that members of the media be walked through the agency‘s process, encouraging them and the public to access the videos that were shown at the conference through JSO’s transparency page on its website.