Family of Jawan Dallas, who died after being tased by cop, demands bodycam footage
Police in Mobile, Alabama, said 36-year-old Dallas "physically resisted" when officers tried to apprehend him while responding to a residential burglary at a trailer park.
The family of a Black man who died in Alabama after being tased by a police officer is demanding access to the body camera footage of the incident.
The Mobile Police Department said in a July 4 news release that Jawan Dallas, 36, “physically resisted” when authorities tried to apprehend him Sunday night while responding to a residential burglary in progress at a trailer park, according to CNN.
An officer reportedly used his Taser to “gain compliance,” but police claimed the initial jolt “failed to have any effect.” Dallas allegedly “attempted to grab” the Taser from the officer, who held on to it and used it against him a second time.
“My son shouldn’t have left here this way. If he was sick, or something, I can understand it, but for him to be tased to death, beat or whatever – is not right,” said Dallas’ mother, Christine Dallas. “It’s unimaginable, it hurts, and I want something done about it.”
According to police, medical help was summoned to the scene per regular procedure to assess Dallas, who subsequently had a medical emergency. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Mobile Police Cpl. Katrina H. Frazier said the investigation is ongoing, and the involved officers are on administrative leave.
The notice from the Mobile Police Department added that authorities are awaiting several reports as part of this investigation to assist with pinpointing Dallas’ precise cause of death.
National civil rights attorney Harry Daniels, now representing Dallas’ family, said his clients met with Mobile’s mayor, chief of staff, city clerk and city attorney on Thursday morning to request access to body camera footage of the event.
According to Dallas’ family, police mistakenly apprehended their loved one that night.
Daniels said Dallas was an “innocent bystander” to the burglary and was about 200 yards away when police arrived. He also maintained that other eyewitnesses told his office that Dallas was “nowhere near an alleged burglary.”
“He had no reason to speak to them because (…) he wasn’t a suspect of any crime,” said Daniels, CNN reported. “There was no probable cause he was involved in any crime.”
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