Suit: Officers used excessive force

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Officials at a police department in metro Phoenix defended its officers who were captured on body-camera video repeatedly shooting a handcuffed man with a stun gun during an encounter in a motel parking lot.

A lawsuit stemming from the July 2017 encounter alleged one Glendale officer kicked Johnny Wheatcroft in the groin during a struggle, while another officer shot him with the stun gun in the testicles.

Glendale police held a briefing Monday to respond to the excessive force allegations after a video of the encounter surfaced on local TV.

The police department has acknowledged its officers used stun guns on Wheatcroft and that an officer kicked him during a struggle.

But the agency denied the allegation that Officer Matt Schneider shot Wheatcroft in the testicles with the stun gun, saying that the officer zapped Wheatcroft in the thigh.

The agency said Wheatcroft wasn’t following officers’ commands and that Wheatcroft’s wife hit an officer in the head with a plastic bag containing full soda cans, knocking the officer to the ground.

During the briefing, police department spokespeople declined to answer several questions, such as whether it was within agency policy to use a stun gun on a person who was handcuffed.

Police say Wheatcroft and his family were passengers in a car suspected of a traffic violation.

Agency spokesman Sgt. John Roth said the kick to Wheatcroft was allowed under a policy regarding people who are resisting officers.

Nearly all of Schneider’s stun-gun use also was allowed under policy, though the officer received a threeday suspension for using a stun gun on Wheatcroft when he was cuffed and not resisting, Roth said.

Marc Victor, an attorney representing Wheatcroft and his family in the lawsuit, said at a news conference that the video shows Wheatcroft was compliant throughout the encounter. “This is egregious,” Victor said.