Video of Wake Forest arrest raises questions
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WTVD) -- A three-minute video clearly shows 20-year-old Theron Gill on the ground and held down by three police officers, as the Taser clicks to life and Gill lets out a piercing scream. By Gill's count, police shot him with a Taser four times.
Police say they hit Gill at least twice.
Why? Depends who you ask. Police say it was because Gill was resisting arrest. Gill says he has no idea.
Both sides agree on the backstory.
Police responded to a "shots fired" call on East Pine Ave., about five minutes from the police station in a low-income part of town. As they began to investigate, a crowd of 50 to 100 people gathered around, including Theron Gill.
Police say they heard Gill swearing loudly and told him to stop. He was on a public sidewalk and swearing can violate state public nuisance laws. Police say Gill refused.
That's where the stories go their separate ways.
Police say Gill wouldn't stop swearing and was told he was being arrested, and that's when the struggle began. They say Gill was resisting arrest and tased for that reason.
But Gill says he was just one of any number in the crowd using profane language and doesn't know why he was singled out. He says he wasn't wearing a shirt at the time and only resisted when police shoved him to the ground.
That's where the video picks up. You see Gill held down by three police. You hear one officer say, "Put your hands behind my back." You hear Gill say, "You're hurting my arm." And then you almost feel the "Tzzz!" of the Taser. A split second later, Gill lets out a scream.
"You have to understand," said Wake Forest Police spokesman Bill Crabtree, "with a crowd that size beginning to gather, as the officers were attempting to do their job, attempting to conduct that investigation, they felt like Mr. Gill, the language he was using, was not appropriate in that instance."
That explanation doesn't hold up for Gill's family. "He was already on the ground in custody," said his father, Will Gill. "It was a bunch of black people up there and they wanted to show their force."
In fact, Gill says he sees race and racism at the heart of what happened.
"I do, because they didn't have to tase him like that," Gill said. "They didn't have to do what they did to him."
Would they have acted the same way if Gill were white?
"I feel they wouldn't have," Gill said. He said he's already contacted the NAACP to investigate his options.
But police maintain they acted by the book and vigorously deny racism had anything to do with Gill's arrest.
"If there's nothing else that you leave here with today," said Crabtree, "I want to assure you that race didn't play any part in this incident."
