A video surfaced Monday showing a high-strung, agitated and paranoid police officer threatening a pizza delivery man out of his car at gunpoint as the man video records with his phone.
“Can you put your gun away, please, sir,” the driver asks as he records.
“Put your hands on the steering wheel,” the cop orders.
The cop has been identified as being from Maryland but not many other details are available at this time, including when the incident took place.
The driver explains that he is working, trying to deliver a pizza, but the cop says he drove almost a quarter-mile before pulling over.
The driver explains he was only trying to find a place to pull over.
“Put your phone down and give me your license and registration,” the cop demands.
“PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN AND GIVE ME YOUR LICENSE AND REGISTRATION,” the cops repeats, his voice getting louder.
“The phone not even in my hand,” the man explains in a calm tone, trying his best to de-escalate a situation that is on the verge of going out of control.
“PULL DOWN YOUR WINDOW,” the cop yells.
“My window is down right now,” the man responds, even though it is not fully down, not that there is any law that says it needs to be rolled fully down.
“It’s going to go bad to really bad, roll down your window, for my safety and your safety,” the cops say.
“I’m about to pull you out the car, man, pull down your window.”
“Sir, you’re about to kill me now?” the man asks.
The man hands over his license but the cops demands his registration. However, the man says he does not have it.
The cop then orders him out of the vehicle.
“Sir, actually, I’m afraid right now,” the man explains.
But the cop insists, saying “you failed to stop,” which apparently was a huge sign of disrespect.
More cops arrive, ordering him out of the car, but the man continues to ask what traffic violation he committed to initiate the cop.
“We’re going to tell you, but you got to get out of the car,” a newly arrived cop explains.
And from there, the video stops.
The video appears to have been first uploaded to a site called Fly Height and has now been picked up by various YouTube channels.
But we are working on obtaining that info so come back for more details.
UPDATED: WUSA-9 obtained more information about this incident, reporting that it was a 25-year-old man named Christopher Jeffries who was forced out of his car at gunpoint, then charged with assault and resisting arrest.
But Jeffries’ lawyer said his client was beaten after he was forced out of the car.
“They extracted him from the car physically and they took him into custody. My client was in handcuffs and the officer commenced to beating my client and then they charged him with assault,” J. Wyndal Gordon.
Bladensburg police released the following statement:
“On January 16, 2016, at 11:07 p.m., a uniformed Bladensburg patrol officer observed a vehicle swerve across the painted lane divider on Baltimore Avenue in Bladensburg. The operator continued to drive erratically to Annapolis Road. The driver then abruptly turned left onto Kenilworth Avenue nearly striking another motorist. The driver continued on Kenilworth Avenue for about a half mile ignoring the officer’s attempt to initiate a traffic stop in a marked police vehicle.
Given the limits of a YouTube video captured by the driver’s cell phone, the driver is shown to be defiant to lawful orders to give the officer his driver’s license and registration card. The driver continued his defiance by refusing to roll-down his window to communicate with the officer, thus escalating the incident.
Ordinarily, when a traffic stop is initiated the operator complies with the officer’s request for their license and registration card. Maryland law requires a vehicle driver to produce their driver’s license and registration card upon demand of a uniformed police officer. In this instance, the officer made numerous demands for his license and registration card.”
The statement contradicts the video, which shows the officer being hostile and aggressive while Jeffries remains calm and non-confrontational.
Gordon said his client never turned left. He also said Jeffries is working three jobs to finish a college degree. He also has a 4.0 grade point average.
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