Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel has launched an internal affairs investigation into an April 22 brawl on Russell Boulevard involving several of his officers and a crowd of Picnic Day partiers, three of whom are facing criminal charges.
Pytel said the city attorney’s office last week retained former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness to conduct the probe of the officers’ actions “to determine whether there was any misconduct and whether any changes to departmental policy and/or training are warranted.”
Pytel also announced plans to publicly release today video footage of the controversial incident, saying it “depicted important details” of the event and may lead to the identification of additional witnesses who were there that day.
Multiple people have disputed the account of two plain-clothed officers who say they were attacked by a “large hostile group” as they emerged from their unmarked van, which had pulled over to move along pedestrians who were blocking the roadway at Russell and College Park.
One officer was kicked several times in the head, another struck in the head with a bottle. Police officials have said the plain-clothed officers had their badges and service weapons displayed, while a third was in uniform.
But according to some witnesses, the officers failed to identify themselves as police, and they say one of them began the contact by cursing at the group to “get the f— out of the road,” then throwing punches as he got out of the vehicle.
“If anyone was hostile, it was the officers in the van,” one woman, Isabel Lynch, told The Enterprise in an interview several days after the incident.
Pytel responded at the time by saying his department had obtained “clear video evidence” — presumably the footage he plans to release — corroborating the officers’ version of events.
He clarified this week that the video came from the dashboard camera of a local resident who happened to be driving by when the fight broke out. It was turned over to the Police Department on April 25.
“Importantly, the ‘dash cam’ video shows that other witnesses were present, and there is likely other video evidence available that has not yet been provided to the Davis Police Department,” Pytel said, noting that additional video could aid the ongoing investigation.
Citizens are asked to view the video at https://vimeo.com/216873077 and https://vimeo.com/216874005 (a slow-motion version) or via the Police Department website: www.cityofdavis.org/city-hall/police-department (click on the public information— Picnic Day 2017 bar).
In addition, citizens are asked to call the department at 530-747-5400 with any information regarding witnesses who may be able to provide video or other assistance.
Three people were arrested following the Russell Boulevard altercation on charges including aggravated battery, assault on a peace officer and obstructing police. Elijah Williams, 19, and Alexander Craver, 22, both of West Sacramento, and Antwoine Perry, 21, of Elk Grove, are scheduled to be arraigned May 23 in Yolo Superior Court.
But Sacramento defense attorney Mark Reichel, who represents Williams, says the men’s arrests were unjustified, as the officers “really didn’t have any reason to do what they were doing.”
He said Williams and other witnesses have told him they had just left a nearby party and were waiting either on the sidewalk or in the bike lane to cross the street when the unmarked van pulled up to them.
“The van hit the horn and (the occupants) started spitting profanities at them,” said Reichel, whose client insists no one inside the vehicle identified themselves as a police officer or had a visible badge.
Lynch, who did not know the arrested men but was among them in the group of pedestrians, previously told The Enterprise that Perry cursed back and had turned to walk away when one of the officers “opens his door and started swinging at Antwoine.”
Williams, meanwhile, “is standing there watching a fight when all of a sudden he’s blindsided (by one of the officers), and I think because he’s black,” said Reichel, who also has obtained bystander video of the melee. “They never said ‘cops’ until the fight was long into it.”
It was upon learning the men were police officers that Williams panicked and ran before being detained, Reichel said.
“They put these people in this frame of mind that they’re being attacked by crazy people,” Reichel said of the initial encounter, for which he’s still seeking witnesses. Of the half-dozen or so he’d talked to as of last week, “every single one of those kids is telling the same exact story.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene