Bodycam released when Mississippi police respond to rough arrest inside home
By: Days after a man reached out to FOX13 detailing his arrest inside of a Senatobia home, Senatobia Police (SPD) issued a press release and released body camera footage of the incident.
Mark Lesure contacted FOX13 on December 29 claiming he walked out of his home out of his home on December 7 to see several officers, some with guns drawn.
Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler said that officers were called to the area for a shooting and saw a suspicious man run away and into Lesure's home.
"The residents of this address have a prior history of acting aggressively towards law enforcement," wrote Chandler.
Chandler said that the people inside the home were given commands to exit and that the people inside the home, including the suspect, eventually complied.
In police body camera video, a man can be heard from the door of the house asking what is happening. An officer with a gun raised tells the man to tell everybody inside the house to come out slowly with their hands raised.
"Nawh, you tell me what's going on. Get off the side of my house," Lesure said in the video. "Put the guns down... Get your hands off the m********k gun."
The person police were looking for eventually walked out of the house.
"That's a child," a man can be seen yelling at police. "F*** wrong with you?"
Chandler said that SPD then attempted to secure the residence so that they could apply for a search warrant, and that one of the people inside the home did not comply with the officer's commands to exit.
"This raised several concerns, including officer safety and the destruction of potential evidence within the residence," wrote Chandler.
In cell phone video captured by someone inside the home, Lesure can be seen walking back inside behind an officer in plain clothes, who he identifies as Police Chief Richard Chandler.
As Lesure walks back into the home, the officer identified as Chandler walks towards Lesure and wraps his hands around Lesure's neck.
Chandler wrote that Lesure approached an officer inside the home and refused to follow orders, leading officers to use force to "overcome his resistance, including soft hand techniques and taser deployment."
The officer wearing the camera tases his fellow officer momentarily before the officer identified as Chandler takes Lesure to the ground. He is then tased again by another officer.
Lesure then rolls onto his stomach at police' commands and is handcuffed while asking "What did I do? What did he do?"
Another man and a child can be seen in the video as Lesure is lifted to his feet.
Lesure is then walked by police to an undercover police car.
Two other people, including a juvenile, were arrested.
Chandler said that officers carried out a search warrant on the home and found a stolen military style rifle, schedule 1 narcotics and paraphernalia. An illegally parked retired school bus was also towed from the front yard of the home, according to the police chief.
Lesure said that he was cutting a child's hair at the time of the encounter.
Lesure was charged with possession of a stolen firearm, possession of controlled substance, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, assault on a law enforcement officer and expired tag.