Body camera video shows an Oklahoma City police officer forcefully taking down and handcuffing a 71-year-old driver after a traffic stop last month.
The driver was hospitalized with serious injuries, and the officer was placed on administrative leave, police said about the Oct. 27 stop.
Body camera video released by police shows an officer, whom police have not publicly identified, stopping a driver for an illegal U-turn after a minor accident.
“There was a use of force, and an elderly man sustained serious injuries that required hospitalization," police said in a statement. "An investigation was immediately initiated, and the officer was placed on administrative leave pending the conclusion of the investigation."
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The incident will be presented to the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office soon, as police are dedicated to transparency and accountability, the statement said.
A representative for Oklahoma City police declined additional comment Tuesday.
Thuan Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese American Community of Oklahoma, identified the driver Tuesday as Lich Vu, 71, and said he remains in the hospital with a skull fracture.
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Relatives of Vu could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The body camera video shows an officer speaking to the driver with the door open, telling him he is writing a ticket for an improper U-turn.
“I didn’t U-turn,” the driver says.
The officer asks the man to sign the citation, explaining it is not an admission of guilt but a contract that he’ll take care of the citation later, the video shows.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about," the driver says, adding that his car was hit by another driver.
“Me? Citation? She hit me and I got the citation?” he tells the officer.
The then gets out of the vehicle and the officer tells him they’re done arguing.
“We don’t argue on the side of the road,” the officer says, adding that if the driver doesn't sign the citation, he will go to jail.
The driver responds, “I’m ready to go to jail.”
The officer, apparently frustrated, calls the driver’s statement “ridiculous.”
The officer then briefly interacts with a woman who was given a ticket but was told she was free to leave.
The officer, according to the video, then calls for another unit.
A second woman appears on the video and tells the officer that the driver is her husband and they didn’t make a U-turn.
The officer and the man continue to argue, and the driver lifts an index finger up to his mouth, as if gesturing for the officer to be quiet.
That’s when the officer takes the man’s hand and puts it behind his back and takes him to the ground. The officer handcuffs the man, who is on his stomach with both hands behind his back. The video ends with the officer saying he’s going to call an ambulance.
Nguyen said that the incident is clearly an excessive use of force and that the officer should be terminated.
“We don’t want our police department nor our [district attorney] to take it lightly. We want justice to be served,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said the police officer appeared to become irritated when Vu made the be-quiet gesture with his finger.
Nguyen said he has spoken to the police chief about how officers with the Vietnamese community.
“We are always the last to be heard,” he said. “So no matter whether we’re the person that is at fault or not at fault, our statements are always last. … And so in certain cases, that indicates implicit bias.”
The incident has also led to conversations with his own community, Nguyen said, about how they should interact with police to avoid situations that can escalate.
— Donna Mendell contributed.
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