A 20-year-old college student who says he was beaten by Los Angeles police officers Saturday says he was prevented from seeing his father for hours after the incident, and was left in a holding cell “bleeding, throwing up, and going in and out of consciousness.”
Ronald Weekley, Jr., a sophomore at Xavier University in New Orleans, told theGrio he was riding his skateboard near his home this weekend, when he passed a patrol car as he crossed the street.
“I was on my skateboard and as I stopped at the stop light they were pulling up to the stop sign,” Weekley said. “I crossed the street and got back on the sidewalk. At no time did they try to stop me. I finished the last 30 feet on my skateboard because my house is right there. I put my hand on the gate and then I hear footsteps and keys, and I turn around and I was being tackled right away.”
Weekley said the officers never told him why they were stopping him. In fact, he says they didn’t say anything to him before one of the officers grabbed him, and began forcing him to the ground.
“They grabbed my hair, they grabbed my shoulders and they grabbed my back,” Weekley said. “They didn’t tell me anything. They didn’t tell me why I was being arrested. The first thing they tried to do was pound my face into the sidewalk.”
WATCH: Raw cell phone video of the LAPD incident (warning: violence)
[MSNBCMSN video=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640″ id=”msnbc817039″ w=”592″ h=”346″ launch_id=”48742499″]
Weekley denies he resisted arrest, but said he had a reflexive reaction to having his face forced toward the ground. “As an athlete, you definitely learn how to use your body,” he said. “So the first thing I did was try not to let my face hit the ground. They managed to throw me onto the grass. I was telling them I wasn’t resisting arrest. They started tying my hands and feet behind my back.”
The 20-year-old said one of the officers put a knee on his back, “he grabbed my hair with his left hand and hit me in the face with his right. He stuck me twice. Immediately after that I started screaming and yelling for help. I thought I was going to die. People started coming over and recording and at that point [the officers] started yelling, ‘stop resisting arrest!’ But my hands were already tied. At that point the officer who had his knee in my back grabbed my hair again and socked me twice, and at that point I lost consciousness.”
Weekley insists the officers said nothing two him until people began spilling out into the street, at least one of whom captured part of the incident on a cellphone camera. A woman can be heard on the video, which has since been uploaded to Youtube, and was being distributed by the family at a press conference at a Los Angeles church Tuesday, saying, “I know this ain’t Orange County, but, you know, we’re just trying to make sure you don’t kill him!”
At least four officers can be seen on top of Weekley in the video.
“Once they started striking me,” Weekley continued, “they said, ‘you’re a dumbass for not stopping at the stop sign.'”
Weekley’s father, Ronald Sr., told theGrio he arrived at the scene after his son was in custody, and that he was prevented from talking to him by the officers.
“At some point, they got Ronald up and dragged him to a wall,” Weekley Sr., said, adding that his son “seemed to be semi conscious. They were kind of holding him up a little bit. I could see this from my vantage point.” After that, Weekley said the officers “kind of dragged him to the [patrol] car. They were trying to prevent me from making any progress closer to my son. My son was screaming, ‘dad, dad, dad! Let me see my dad!'” Weekley Sr. said the officers told him they would check with the sergeant in charge, a Sgt. Jeter, but that he sas Jeter talk to the officers, lean over the patrol car where Weakley Jr. was seated in the back, and then, the car pulled off.
When he asked why he wasn’t permitted to speak to his son, Weakley Sr. said the officers told him, “sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t” allow such interaction, “but this time. we didn’t think it was appropriate.” He added that Sgt. Jeter told him he was not assigned to patrol that neighborhood, but that he was “in charge of a group of about 20 officers from the violent crimes special division” of the LAPD. He said he went to “three different jails” trying to find his son, but officers would not tell him where Ronald Jr. was.
Weekley Jr. said the incident took place between 5:30 and 6 p.m. on Saturday, and that he was initially taken to the Pacific Division Police Department, where he was left in a holding cell for over an hour, still bleeding, “throwing up,” and “going in and out of consciousness.” The younger Weekley claims that while he was being held, various officers passed his cell, mocking him, including telling him he “looked like Evander Holyfield after he got beaten up by Mike Tyson.” He said officers refused to take him for medical treatment, adding that officers initially tried to clean him up at the scene, and “waved off” an EMS vehicle, but that once at the holding cell, a black officer eventually came to his aid.
Weekley said the officer, whose name he didn’t know, came into the cell and examined him, then “he turns to other officers and said, ‘this kid needs help. He looks like he’s going in an out of consciousness.'” He said the other officers insisted he was “cool,” but that the black officer insisted, telling the other officers, “get this man to a hospital right now.”
He said at that point, two officers picked him up and “dragged” him to another holding cell.
At some point, Weekley was taken to another facility, the “Glass House” on 180 N. Los Angeles Street, which is also called the Parker Center holding facility, where he said he was held for about four hours, after which he was finally transported to a hospital, where his attorney, Ben Crump, says he was treated for a concussion, as well as a fractured nose and cheekbone.
“He is a college student … a sophomore on summer break,” Crump said. “Police came to his house and tried to take him down by his hair, punched him four times, called him a ‘dumb ass'” and used other profanities, the attorney said.
Crump claims officers tried to claim Weekley’s injuries were caused when he was “jumped by other black people in the neighborhood.”
” They did not take him to get medical treatment,” Crump said. “They tried to clean up his face so people wouldn’t see what they did, but he kept saying he wanted to see his dad first.”
Weekley was charged with felony resisting an officer with violence. He was released on $29,000 bail.
“Twenty years after Rodney King, you would think the LAPD wouldn’t keep using this type of excessive force against his citizens,” Crump said, adding that police have tried to demonize Weekley Jr. by pointing to three prior warrants. “His warrants were for a curfew violation at age 15, a bicycle incident at age 16, and driving without a license at 18, and theyre trying to make him seem like a criminal. He’s a college student, majoring in chemistry and pre-med.”
The LAPD has launched an internal investigation into the incident. And police spokesman Sgt. Frank Preciado, reached for comment by theGrio, indicated that there were four officers involved in the incident, though he said he didn’t have any of their names. And Preciado said Weekley caused the first responding officer to “fall to the ground,” prompting him to call for back-up, prior to Weekley being struck.
Preciado said the unit involved is a specialized task force attached to the LAPD’s Pacific Division, and that they were in the area to create a police presence to prevent crime. He said Weekley was creating a safety hazard by riding the wrong way in the road on his skateboard, and that he officers intended to stop and warn Weekley.
“The officers’ first intent was to make contact and warn the individual, but the Mr. Weekley decided he was going to walk away when they tried to speak to him,” Preciado said. “He became very uncooperative, at which point when the officers did make contact with him” for what the spokesman called a “2156A” violation for “pedestrian in the roadway.”
As to the violent turn the stop took, the officer said, “when they’re going to detain an individual and person is resisting, we’re going to use ‘objective reasonableness’ to determine the use of force.”
Preciado said the officers’ reports would not be made available while the internal investigation, led by the commanding officer, Capt. Brian Johnson, is under way. He said it is standard procedure for a person complaining of injuries to be treated by a “nurse or doctor”, and for family members to be informed of their loved one’s location once in custody.
The family held a press conference protesting Weekley’s treatment, and dozens of supporters protested the incident Monday night.
Asked whether the department is concerned about the incident souring relations with the African-American community in Los Angeles, Preciado said the LAPD is “always concerned.”
“We pride ourselves on having a great relationship with all the members of the community,” Preciado said. “We’re not in a position where we Monday morning quarterback this situation. We don’t know what transpired prior to Mr. Weekly being struck. This wasn’t a typical misdemeanor. That’s why he was booked for felony resisting with force.”
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