Edited video show Palm Bay man beaten in violent arrest by PBPD
By: A chunk of video is missing around the 0:10 mark
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A man was taken to the hospital Sunday after an encounter with two Palm Bay Police officers resulted in a violent arrest.
This is according to statements from the man’s friends and footage captured on a nearby home security camera.
Friends of 22-year-old Jacob Mitchell said he was having a cigarette outside his best friend’s apartment, at Palm Bay Club Condominiums on Pinewood Drive, when two Palm Bay police officers approached him. The fragmented videos from the Arlo Home Security System show the cops talking to Mitchell, questioning him for a few minutes, before they started tasing and punching him.
“It’s f***ed up,” said Devin Adkins, who’s been friends with Mitchell for years and was the first to share the security camera footage on social media. “He is now being taken from the hospital to the jail with a fractured orbital bone and a sprained shoulder.”
Adkins said Mitchell was standing outside his apartment when the incident occurred. It was Adkins’ security cameras that captured the videos. According to Palm Bay resident Derrick Wilson, a warrant has already been issued to obtain the footage in full.
The videos are not continuous, but the Space Coast Rocket was able to acquire 13 separate clips. In them, Mitchell can be heard saying more than once that he has a criminal history and is on probation currently, explaining he’s been trying to avoid further trouble with the law.
According to Wilson, the officers were there responding to a 9-1-1 call allegedly made by Mitchell. In the videos, Mitchell can be heard telling the two officers he was smoking a cigarette outside when he saw what looked like teenagers trying to open cars in the complex parking lot.
In the videos, the officers can be heard asking Mitchell why he denied making the 9-1-1 call. The following exchange was caught audibly on camera.
“Why is it when officers were walking this way back to their cars we asked you if you called 9-1-1 you said no? That’s on bodycam, bro,” one of the officers said.
“I understand that. It’s because I’m nervous, you know what I’m saying?” Mitchell replied.
“Nervous about what?” The officer asked before the video got cut off.
None of the videos obtained by Space Coast Rocket show the exact moments of escalation that led from the questioning to the violent arrest that put Mitchell in the hospital. In some of the videos, some apartment residents can be seen running out in response to the violent commotion, as the two officers got on top of Mitchell in an attempt to arrest him.
On Facebook, comments and speculations abound. Many stated Mitchell was just trying to help prevent a robbery. Several other comments identified one of the cops as “Officer McDonald.” These claims have not been confirmed by Space Coast Rocket.
A public records search in the Brevard Clerk of Courts did not immediately yield an incident or arrest report at this time.
Space Coast Rocket has requested an incident or arrest report, as well as bodycam footage. The Palm Bay Police Department did not immediately respond to these, nor to a request for comment.