Police dragged paraplegic by the hair from his car
POLICE officers in Ohio are being investigated after bodycam footage emerged of a disabled driver being dragged from his car by his hair during a traffic stop last month.
Clifford Owensby, 39, who said he does not have use of his legs, said he felt helpless when he was removed from the car to the ground and handcuffed before being placed in the back of a Dayton Police Department cruiser during the incident on Sept 30.
Police said the two Dayton officers were part of a narcotics investigation in the Dayton View neighborhood and saw the car leaving a suspected drug house. As a result of that and the driver’s “felony drug and weapon history”, a K-9 team was summoned for a “free air sniff ” that under department policy required occupants to leave the vehicle for their safety and that of the dog, police said.
Mr Owensby said he could not get out because he is paraplegic, and he refused their assistance in doing so, police said.
He then “grabbed on to the steering wheel ... [and] was then forcibly removed from the vehicle,” police said.
Police bodycam footage shows Mr Owensby repeatedly telling the officers that he was unable to get out of the car because he was a paraplegic, threatening to file a lawsuit and calling someone to “bring some people with cameras” to record the interaction.
On the ground, he is heard screaming for help and asking someone to call “the real police”.
Police said Mr Owensby was placed on the ground “in order to secure him” and officers had to pull his arms behind his back to handcuff him.
A bag containing $22,450 (£16,500) in cash was found on the front floorboard, and the dog alerted to the currency,
‘I feel like they don’t even respect me as a citizen. [I hope] for some kind of disciplinary action’
meaning “the money had been in close proximity to illegal drugs”, police said.
The Dayton Daily News reported that a police report cited misdemeanour obstructing official business and resisting arrest, but Mr Owensby had not been charged with either count.
Traffic citations were filed in municipal court due to an unrestrained three three-year-old child in the back seat and the car’s tinted glass.
“I feel like they don’t even respect me as a citizen,” Mr Owensby told the newspaper, adding that he hopes for “some kind of disciplinary action”.