A Philadelphia cop is under fire after he allegedly deleted footage from a cell phone showing him arresting a man with an outstanding warrant.
Jacob Giddings recorded his own arrest in March by a Philly cop identified as Officer Burnett. According to the police report, per TMZ, Burnett said when he spotted Giddings’ pickup truck idling for 10-15 minutes at a gas station, he ran the plates, and it came back that the man had an active warrant for assault.
When Officer Burnett attempted to arrest him, Giddings “started to resist,” so Burnett used force to pull him out of his vehicle. The officer’s body cam was activated and captured Giddings recording the encounter on his cell phone from inside his truck.
During the struggle, Giddings lost his phone and the officer picked it up and gained access to the footage, which he appears to delete (see video above). After Giddings is in custody and sitting in the police car’s backseat, he is heard on the bodycam footage asking Burnett if the video is still on his phone. The cop says, “I don’t know,” — but Giddings believes Burnett deleted the clip, and now he’s suing.
Giddings has hired attorney Donte Mills of Mills &. Edwards LLP to lead his lawsuit against the Philadelphia PD for excessive force and assault, tampering with evidence, false arrest and malicious prosecution, per TMZ.
Mills was able to retrieve Giddings’ arrest video from his iCloud account. His client was also charged with one count of drug possession after cops found marijuana on Giddings during the bust. According to the report, he suffered minor cuts to his wrist from the handcuffs and was treated at the local hospital.
The Philadelphia Police said, “This incident is currently under investigation with our Internal Affairs Bureau. The officer involved has been placed on administrative duty status pending the outcome of the internal investigation.”
Meanwhile, in a completely unrelated case, Philadelphia police are expected to release new information about Keith Gibson, the man suspected in several murders in Philadelphia and Delaware, including the fatal shooting of his own mother and a Dunkin’ Donuts manager over the weekend.
Officials say after Gibson killed 41-year-old store manager Christine Lugo during a robbery, he shot and critically wounded a 19-year-old in Wilmington and pistol-whipped a female worker at a Rite Aid in New Castle.
On May 15, he allegedly shot an employee at a T-Mobile store in Elsmere, Delaware.
Gibson previously served time for committing homicide and commercial robbery in Delaware in 2008, according to the report.
Gibson was taken into custody by Wilmington police on Tuesday and charged in connection with an armed robbery. Police are expected to hold a press conference today (June 9) at 1 p.m. to update the public on the handling of the case.
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