Paraplegic pulled from car, thrown to the ground by police in Ohio

Ohio police forcibly removed a paraplegic man from his vehicle and threw him to the ground, despite repeated calls and telling him he had no use of his legs, according to a video by a body camera released on Friday.

The Dayton Police Department shared the video with NBC News which shows two officers commanding motorist Clifford Owensby getting out of the Audi he was driving during a traffic stop last week.

The video has been edited and it is not known what happened before or after the video.

Owensby can be heard telling the police he’s a paraplegic. One of the officers said he would help him get out of the car, but the motorist refused and asked why he was stopped.

“I can’t get out of the vehicle, sir,” Owensby said.

The officer told Owensby he had to get out of the vehicle for a dog to smell the drugs, but the motorist objected, as the video shows.

“No, no, no, you are not going to touch me. You are definitely not going to touch me,” he can be heard saying in the video. “There will be a trial if you get your hands on me for no reason, my brother.”

Owensby then appears to make a phone call and ask someone to come see him and film his interactions with the officers.

Owensby asks agents to call their supervisor before they unbuckle him and appear to be dragging him by the shoulders and dreadlocks.

He yells and shouts repeatedly, “Someone help, someone help!”

As officers pressed him to the sidewalk, one of them put his knee behind his back as Owensby continued to call for help.

At one point he shouted, ‘Can you all call the real police please? As an officer threatened to Tase.

The agents involved have not been identified.

Dayton Fraternal Order of Police chairman Jerome A. Dix said in a statement Friday night that officers requested compliance and offered to “help” Owensby when told he was paraplegic. He said the motorist “continued to be verbally non-compliant”, making the officers’ response worse.

“The officers followed the law, their training and the department’s policies and procedures,” he said. “Sometimes arresting non-compliant individuals is not pretty, but is a necessary part of law enforcement to maintain public safety, which is one of the core ideologies of our society.”

Owensby did not respond to NBC News’ attempted comments on Friday, but told the Dayton Daily News in an article published Monday: “I feel like they don’t even respect me as a citizen.”

He said he suffered scratches after being pulled from the vehicle. He told the publication that a previous back injury was injured again.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said in a statement Friday: “The video of this interaction with the police is of great concern to me. No matter where you live or what you look like, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect when dealing with the Dayton Police. “

She said the incident was under investigation.

“Dayton remains committed to our community-driven police reform process and transparency in situations like this,” Whaley said.

Dennis Romero contributed.