Blind man says he was injured during police takedown
theGRIO REPORT - An Arkansas man, who is legally blind and only sees shadows, says he was injured after a Little Rock Police officer slammed him into the ground.
An Arkansas man, who is legally blind and only sees shadows, says he was injured after a Little Rock Police officer slammed him into the ground.
“I had just got off of work,” Eric Wilson recalled, telling his story to Fox 16. Wilson works with Lighthouse for the Blind and had missed his bus, so he started to walk home.
LRPD had gotten a call about someone who looked like Wilson who was chasing or running away from someone and who seemed to be afraid. An officer spotted Wilson and called out, “Hey, come over here and talk to me.”
Watch a full report on the disturbing incident:
But Wilson, who could not see, did not know who was talking to him.
“I could have possibly been getting robbed,” Wilson said. “I didn’t know what was about to happen.”
The officer ordered Wilson to put his hands behind his back and then slammed him to the ground. According to the officer’s report, Wilson was “pulled away violently causing me to lose grip,” and the officer was “afraid that Wilson would strike myself or my partner with the handcuff.”
But Wilson’s lawyer, Reggie Koch, says the dash cam shows differently.
“When they tell him to ‘come over here,’ he walked towards them,” Koch said. “When they tell him ‘take your hands out of your pockets,’ he takes his hands out of his pockets. What more do they want?”
After the incident, Wilson went to the hospital for back pain and was diagnosed with a strained lumbar.
