Bodycam shows Lakeland officer using force to arrest Marcus Adams, who was smoking and on a bicycle
By: A man is accusing Lakeland police officers of using unnecessary force, stemming from an incident in February.
Police body cam video of the confrontation, which started when a man named Marcus Adams, says he stopped to smoke a cigarette on the Florida Southern College campus and was asked to leave.
Adams was already off campus when Lakeland police officers caught up with him.
Just 22 seconds into the body camera video, Adams can be seen falling off his bicycle. At 23 seconds, he's on his back, showing his hands. Then, at 25 seconds, officers begin to grab him as he apparently kicks his legs.
Six seconds after he fell from his bike, he's being shot with a taser.
"I was completely caught off guard and did not understand that they thought I had tried to run away," Adams said. "When they said that in the video, I was like, 'are you all crazy?' I fell off the bike, and I repeatedly told them I fell off the bike."
Flipped over, with his hands pinned beneath him, the video allegedly shows officers continuing to yell at Adams to put his hands behind his back.
"I've never had my whole body lock up, and you can't move it," he said. "You can't do anything."
Even as Adams groans in pain, is being tasered and apparently subdued, an officer begins striking Adams with his forearm.
When he asks them why he's being detained — the answer is not trespassing or smoking.
“What am I being stopped for? Why am I being stopped, because of a cigarette? On the campus?” Adams asks.
“No,” the officer responds, “Because you didn't listen to my commands, that's why.”
Community leaders who have repeatedly called upon Lakeland to address several cases of alleged police brutality say they have now seen this video as well.
“Well, immediately when I look at the video, I think of all of the other cases that we've been dealing with Lakeland and saying this is the same pattern,” said Pastor Clayton Cowart with the Poor Minority Justice Association. “This is the same situation. Now, we've seen Black, we've seen white, it's the culture.”
Earlier this month, a high-profile law firm specializing in allegations of police brutality said it would be getting involved in what they called an effort to hold Lakeland police accountable.
Pastor Cowart said he had passed this video along to them and the FBI as well.
“I don't know what it's going to take to get the Lakeland Police Department to realize that there is a serious problem here,” Cowart said.
In the arrest affidavit, police say Adams failed to take the most direct route off campus.
In a statement, Lakeland PD says Adams had not filed a formal complaint, but that all protective actions are thoroughly reviewed.
"Had Mr. Adams complied with the officers' directives,” the statement reads in part. “This incident would not have resulted in protective actions taken by the officers."
According to the police affidavit, Adams was charged with trespassing on school grounds, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer without violence.
10 Tampa Bay asked Adams if he thought because officers found meth on him that it should change how people view him and his account.
"Because they found drugs in my backpack, yes," he said. "Does that justify them beating me up? No, not whatsoever, not whatsoever."