Jersey Village man claims police officers were excessive in traffic stop, demands investigation
By: Body camera footage shows the moment two Jersey Village police officers encountered a man during a traffic stop. That man says the interaction with the officers was excessive.
On December 22, Patrick Royal was stopped by a Jersey Village officer, who told the man he had a faulty brake light. Royal says he was driving home from work for a lunch break.
In one body camera angle released by civil rights activists Dr. Candice Matthews and Quanell X, you can hear the first responding officer ask Royal to step out of the car - the officer then pulls out pepper spray and says he will use it on Royal if he doesn't get out.
"You ain't pepper spraying me, man, I'm gonna press this seat belt, and I'll get out," says Royal.
He then places his wallet on the dashboard and gets out with his cell phone in his right hand. The other responding officer stands behind Royal as the first officer asks him to pat him down.
On a dash camera video released by Jersey Village PD, you can see Royal exiting the car and placing his phone on the hood.
That's when a scuffle starts, and the first officer is seen pointing his weapon at Royal's head.
"I will f-----g kill you, you stupid motherf----r," says the first officer on his body camera. You can hear Royal tell officers his phone was falling off of the car, which can be seen from the dash cam angle.
"We are aware that only a 30-second clip of the traffic stop in question was released to the news media today," Lieutenant D. Keele writes. "This does not provide your viewers the full account of what occurred during this traffic stop, nor does it depict the actions of the driver pulling away from an officer, and attempting to reach into the vehicle. This was captured on in-car dash camera video."
Lt. Keele also states the department is reviewing the footage and will be forwarded to their Internal Affairs division if they determine any policies were violated.
"After that, they threw me on the ground," says Royal. "My knees are scarred up, they had me in the cop car, ran through my car, vandalized it, didn't find nothing….it was all unnecessary."
The video also shows officers asking for proof of insurance - which Royal was able to show them. Royal also tells FOX 26 that the ticket he was issued for his brake light was later dismissed by a judge.
"That Jersey Village deputy should never be allowed to carry a gun again," says Quanell X. "That man one day will kill somebody if he's not stopped by law enforcement officials within Harris County DA's office. He (Royal) wasn't running from somebody's house. This wasn't a high-speed chase. Coming home from work with groceries in the car on his lunch break. And he was treated like that. We thank God this young man is still alive."