Raw video: police attempt to stop onlookers from recording arrests
Raw video footage of what appears to be St. Petersburg police officers assaulting a family for recording them as they make arrests in front of their home has gone viral.
The family reached out to local media and shared the dramatic footage last month.
Cell phone video shows JaQuan Fisher, 17, standing on his own front porch recording the arrests happening on Rome Street. In the video, an officer is heard saying, “Unless you want me to take your phone from you,” before there is a struggle and video goes to black.
“I was right here. I pulled out my phone,” JaQuan said, pointing to where he was standing.
Petersburg Police had just busted several people at a home next door. They were handcuffing the suspects in front of Fisher’s home. He walked out onto the porch and his cousin—who was one of the people being arrested–yelled, “Start recording.”
“[The officer] came off the porch and said, ‘You want me to take your phone?'” Fisher said. “I put my phone in my pocket and then when he tried to take my phone, I guess he thought he was going to get my phone and he shoved me. I shoved him back.”
Watch the raw footage here:
An investigation is ongoing.
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Fisher’s sister also started taking cell phone video. She captured the violence that followed.
“They was trying to grab my son off the porch. I was trying to tell my boyfriend to open the door so we can get in the house,” Debra Fisher said. She is JaQuan’s mother and can be seen on the video wrestling with officers.