La Mesa Police Body Camera Video Footage Reveals Little

Speaker 1: 00:00 During protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota, much of the focus here in San Diego has been over an incident involving police that happened last week in Lamesa a cell phone video of the encounter near a trolley stop between Lamesa officer Matt Dodges and Amaury Johnson. A young African American man has already gone viral on Wednesday. Lamesa authorities released the police officer's body cam recording of the incident. And supporters of Johnson also spoke out demanding fundamental change within the Lamesa police department. Joining me is KPBS reporter Joe Hong Joe. Welcome to the program in the cell phone video seen by so many people already. We see the officer repeatedly pushed Johnson back down on a bench and ultimately handcuff and charge him with assaulting an officer. What more is on the police body cam recording. Speaker 2: 00:56 So we don't see any, anything really new in the beginning of the body cam video, we see the officer turning on his body cam in his car and going out to, uh, speak with Johnson. And then from there, we basically see what we saw in the video that circulated social media. We know that the officer approached Johnson allegedly because Johnson was smoking in a prohibited area, but we definitely don't see Johnson assaulting the officer in any way. Speaker 1: 01:25 And, uh, what's been the results so far of this police incident in Lamesa is the officer suspended. Speaker 2: 01:32 So the officer has been put on administrative leave and Johnson is still facing misdemeanor charges for assaulting a police officer and for resisting and delaying a police officer, but he has been released. Speaker 1: 01:45 What did the Mesa authority say about their investigation Speaker 2: 01:48 they're conducting or a third party is conducting an investigation right now. Police chief wog Vasquez really didn't have much to add at this point and local residents who showed up, uh, at the press conference yesterday. Weren't happy about that. Here's the clip from police chief while Vasquez? Speaker 3: 02:06 Well, at this time again, um, I did review the video. Um, it's not proven for me to contact or make a comment on it, but that's why the video is being provided today. Speaker 1: 02:18 So that was what the Lamesa authorities had to say about their investigation. There were also announcements about the investigation into why the police fired a projectile that injured a woman during the protest in Lamesa on Saturday night. And Lamesa is mayor says police there won't use the carotid restraint anymore. Tell us about those announcements. Speaker 2: 02:40 Yeah. So the city officials did talk about the case of Leslie for, and she was the 59 year old San Diego resident who was shot in the forehead with a, what we now know was a beanbag pellet, and the pellet was embedded in her forehead. And, um, again, city officials didn't really comment on the details of this investigation. They did announce that they, I they've sort of internally identified who the officer was, who shot that round, but didn't give names at yesterday's press conference. And the police chief did sort of outlined the general procedure for using these what unquote less lethal weapons. He said the sort of general procedure is to aim for the torso, uh, because that's sort of where the center of gravity is. And what asked if you know, this, the police department would keep using these weapons after the, this incident, they, they made no commitment to stopping the use of the weapons and they didn't really explain what was happening when they, when they fired the weapon either. And as for the carotid restraint. Yeah, Lamesa police department is now among 15 in the County, including San Diego, sheriff and San Diego police department to stop using the carotid restraint, which is a technique used by police officers to sort of restrict the blood flow in the carotid artery arteries in the neck. And, uh, basically it sort of just looks like a chokehold. And now the, the use of that restraint is banned Speaker 1: 04:09 in your reporting. Joe, you wrote that community members confronted Lamesa officials at Wednesday's news conference who was there and what did they have to say? Speaker 2: 04:17 Yeah, it was quite a scene yesterday at the press conference. There were a group of community advocates, some of the protesters who are out on Saturday, who really took over and really, they were upset about the lack of answers that were given in the Johnson case. Uh, the body cam footage didn't really show anything new. They, the police chief didn't really say who was in the wrong. Um, and then in the case of Leslie, for con the woman who shot in the head, again, they're not getting any answers. Um, I spoke with, uh, Tasha Williamson. Who's a former mayoral candidate. Uh, she got very emotional at the podium about the lack of policing and really the lack of trust between the community and police right now. But advocates do have some specific solutions before the city's press conference, uh, community activist, Shane Harris held his own press conference. And I asked him about what he expected to see in the body cam footage. And he just told me he wasn't expecting to see anything that would surprise him, but he, he did once with action from Lamesa police firemen. And here's what he had to say. Speaker 4: 05:26 Look at George Floyd's death and look at what happened to that young man in Lamesa all these videos are showing us probable Claus cause, but why did it take the da of Minneapolis, Minnesota, five days to see what we all saw probable cause all you need is probable cause to make an arrest and charge somebody. Speaker 1: 05:44 So we learned today that national guard troops will be on hand in San Diego and in Lamesa as added security. What is the situation in Lamesa now? Are any major protests continuing? Yes. So the national has deployed a hundred, Speaker 2: 05:59 a hundred of its troops to Lamesa and 100 more just throughout the County. Um, as of now, I don't know of any major protests coming. I know of one visual over the weekend that is anticipated to be very peaceful. Um, as of now Lamesa is one of the few cities that has a curfew in place until next Monday. Uh, the daily curfew is from 7:00 PM to 5:30 AM and it ends next Monday, June 8th at 5:30 AM. And I have been speaking with KPBS reporter Joe Hong, Joe. Thanks. Thank you.