By David Chanen and Rochelle Olson
Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said today he will ask the FBI to investigate an incident in which a squad car video captured police punching and kicking a man as they tried to arrest him in February after a stop for speeding.
“The kicking is troubling to me,” Dolan said after watching the video early today. “The public will want an investigation.”
Jenkins was stopped by Minneapolis police at 3 a.m. Feb. 19 on Penn Avenue N. for allegedly going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit.
He ended up at North Memorial Medical Center, his face bloodied and bruised. He required seven stitches above his eye after six officers punched and kicked him while he was face-down in a snowbank. He was treated at the hospital and then jailed for four days.
In their reports, the officers said that Jenkins had resisted arrest, so they had to subdue him before placing him in two sets of handcuffs.
He was charged with felony assault and a gross misdemeanor for refusing to submit to alcohol tests. Both charges have since been dropped.
Jenkins said he was the victim of an unprovoked attack simply because he had vigorously questioned Officer Richard Walker about why he was stopped and asked to talk to his supervisor.
Jenkins and his lawyer, Paul Edlund, released a seven-minute video shot from two squad cars that captured the arrest. The video shows the officer wrestling with Jenkins as he tried to handcuff him after Jenkins disobeyed the officer’s orders and got out of his car. Then other officers arrived on the scene and kicked and punched Jenkins.
Edlund did not immediately return a call this morning.
Tactics questioned Jenkins said he believes the officers should be disciplined, and that he hopes the incident will spur a community discussion about police tactics.
Walker’s supervisor and the evening watch commander reviewed the video and said that the force used was reasonable under the circumstances. Every use-of-force incident by an officer has to be reported to a supervisor.
Jenkins said that he had a bad feeling about the stop and called his girlfriend on his cell phone when he was pulled over. Her voice mail recorded some of his exchange with Walker.
Jenkins is heard repeatedly asking, “What did I do wrong?” While Walker said he was speeding, Jenkins denied it.
Walker said in a criminal complaint against Jenkins, “I told him several times to hand me his license and relax,” but that Jenkins would not comply. Walker said Jenkins became irate, and when he began to get out of the car, the officer pushed Jenkins back into the vehicle and told him to stay there. But Jenkins, who is 5-foot-8 and weighs 240 pounds, got out anyway and “began fighting,” the officer said.
Walker told Jenkins to stop resisting arrest, but he continued, he said.
More officers arrived and “ultimately took the defendant into custody.” Jenkins was charged with felony fourth-degree assault.
On March 30, the county attorney dropped the charge “in the interest of justice.” Jenkins also was charged with refusing to submit to a chemical test because he wouldn’t consent to having his blood or urine tested at the hospital.
Jenkins said that he had three beers with his dinner that night.
Hennepin County Judge Ron Abrams, who viewed the video, dismissed that charge about a month ago. It’s unclear what role, if any, the video played in the dismissal.
“They did it so easily and quick, I know they’ve done this before,” Jenkins said. “People are getting beat up out there.”
Copyright 2009 Minneapolis Star Tribune