Prince George’s police Taser a handcuffed man after traffic stop
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Version 0 of 1. A Prince George’s County police officer discharged a stun gun against a handcuffed man while the man was on the ground Saturday, after a traffic stop allegedly escalated into a series of assaults on multiple officers and an escape attempt, police said Sunday. Giovanti Moschino Young, 21, is charged with multiple counts of assaulting police, authorities said. Police said Young was wanted on a Howard County arrest warrant for robbery, and that an in-car police camera showed him acting aggressively at the traffic stop. The department’s internal affairs division is investigating. Portions of the video that police showed reporters depict Young getting out of the car and raising his voice at officers, which leads to an altercation in which police take him to the ground. According to police, Young was a passenger in a car pulled over in Laurel at about 1 p.m. for rolling through a stop sign when he allegedly assaulted two officers, was arrested and claimed he was injured. Young was taken to the hospital where no injuries were found, police said. While being transported for processing, police said, Young then managed to escape from a police cruiser while handcuffed at Wells Parkway and Route 1 in College Park at about 5 p.m. Young spit at and bit an officer on the arm and tried to kick him, police said. The officer was able to get Young on the ground, but Young continued to struggle until he was Tasered, police said. Both men were treated for their injuries. Young could not be reached for comment. But at his Savage, Md., home, his step-father said Young is about five-feet five-inches tall and 140 pounds and posed no threat to the larger police officers seen in the police recording. Derek Nickens, 46, who is married to Young's mother, said Young told her he was not trying to escape in the second incident. Instead, after he asked a question that bothered the officer, the officer deviated from his route, ordered Young to get out, then "smashed him out of the car and body-slammed him to the ground." An apparent passer-by on Saturday posted videos on his Twitter account of the latter incident taken after the pair were on the ground. The witness video shows the lone officer lying on Young and trying to control him on the ground, punching him in the face and pressing a small hand baton in the area of his neck. The stun gun is not seen, but the witness video at one point showed Young writhing and gasping, still pinned but with the officer holding his head and saying, “Relax. You hear them sirens? When they come, you’ll be fine.” In an interview, the Twitter user, who identified himself as Prince, a 22-year-old African-American graduate of the University of Maryland, said he believed the officer’s actions were “definitely excessive. I think the point of handcuffs is to restrain somebody. I don’t think being on someone’s back and punching him in the head is necessary.” He added, “As a black man, there’s no way I would get involved in police activity …I have a real fear of this happening to me.” Police asked anyone with information to e-mail police_internalaffairs@co.pg.md.us. |