By Police1 Staff
MINNEAPOLIS — Shocking surveillance video shows a drunk suspect pull a gun from his pants as he sits in the back of a squad, as two Metro Transit officers try to find out what he’s doing.
Wesley Rogers, 21, was arrested for ‘harassing’ a woman downtown when officers picked him up, saying he was ‘obviously drunk’ in the December incident, according to ABC 6.
Newly released video shows Rogers, who appears un-cuffed, slowly pulling a revolver from his pants, dropping it, and trying to grab it again as the officers — Jason Malland and Adam Marvin — grow suspicious.
A pat-down search of Rogers by the officers found “an open bottle of liquor.” Rather than arrest Rogers or take him to a detox facility, the officers decided to take Rogers to his North Minneapolis home as a “courtesy,” according to Metro Transit.
Metro Transit Police Chief John Harrington called the officers’ failure to detect the weapon during their pat-down search of the man a lapse due to the inexperience of a rookie officer. Malland had only been with the Metro police for two months at the time of the incident, according to the article.
Harrington didn’t punish the officers, saying, “In my judgment, this is a training issue... And the way, in my mind, that you deal with mistakes is you correct the behavior by training the officers and reminding them of the importance of good searches.”
A training course on how to properly pat down and book a suspect was ordered for all Metro Transit police following the ordeal.