Videos released of police incident
In connection with internal affairs probe
After Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox cleared a police captain of using excessive force during a 2019 confrontation in Dorchester, police released two surveillance videos that partially captured the incident.
The two short video clips, provided to the Globe in response to a public records request filed months ago, show Captain John Danilecki using his leg to force David Nave to the ground by knocking his feet out from under him. However, the videos did not capture what happened next, because the view from surveillance cameras was obscured by the headlights of police cruisers that responded to the scene.
Last week, the department disclosed that Cox found that Danilecki did not use excessive force during the March 30, 2019, incident — a decision he reached after ordering internal affairs investigators to reexamine the case several years after they sustained the excessive force complaint and also found Danilecki had lied.
The internal affairs documents released last week say investigators were “unable to prove or disprove” many of the allegations against Danilecki because the entire incident wasn’t captured on video, he and Nave offered conflicting accounts, and other witnesses were unwilling to talk to police or could not be located.
A spokesperson for the Police Department has declined to comment about why Cox sent the case back to internal affairs for further review or to provide documents about its preliminary findings sustaining complaints against Danilecki.
Nave, 59, expressed surprise Sunday when told by the Globe that the videos had been released. He said he has repeatedly requested video, but the Police Department still has not provided it to him.
“He had no right to touch me,” Nave said, referring to his encounter with Danilecki. “I was no threat — I’m standing there.”
He said he injured his back when Danilecki knocked him to the ground and will require further surgery.
“What am I supposed to do, forget?” he said. “How do I forget? I can’t for
get.”
By Nave’s account, he was walking down Adams Street on the night of March 30, 2019, looking for a group of teenagers who stole his son’s cellphone. He claimed he was carrying a small souvenir baseball bat he found on the street; he stopped to talk with a group of boys and then he was suddenly confronted by Danilecki, who took the bat. He claimed that when he encountered Danilecki a short time later, the captain grabbed him by his sweatshirt, slammed him onto the pavement, and pinned him down with his knee.
In a police report dated the night of the incident, Danilecki wrote that he approached Nave because a group of men were fighting. After Danilecki dispersed the group, he wrote, Nave became aggressive and approached him in a “combative way,” so Danilecki “guided him to the ground” using a defensive tactic he learned in the police academy. He said he did not kneel on Nave.
On Sunday, Greg Henning, an attorney who represents Danilecki, said in an email that the video doesn’t show the initial encounter several blocks away, where Danilecki takes the bat from Nave, or Nave pursuing the captain and demanding his bat back.
“It doesn’t capture the alcohol on Nave’s breath, the audio of his belligerent, hostile confrontation with the captain at the intersection, his refusal to file a report on scene, and his denial of medical attention when Capt. Danilecki asked if he wanted to go to the hospital,” Henning said.
Last week, Cox announced that he concluded that Danilecki violated only one regulation related to the incident for neglect of duty, for failing to file a report. He also found Danilecki violated department rules in two unrelated incidents: failing to file a report after using force against a protester during a “Straight Pride” parade in 2019 and inappropriately seizing a sign during a 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration.
He ordered Danilecki suspended for three days for all three incidents.
Danilecki has been nicknamed “Pepper Jack” by protesters, who have accused him of unnecessarily using pepper spray during demonstrations.
It was the ninth time since 1993 that the Police Department ultimately did not sustain an excessive force complaint against Danilecki. He has been on the force for 36 years and has received awards for bravery, including the department’s Medal of Honor twice. But he has also been the subject of at least 21 internal affairs cases in his career and was cleared in the majority of them, according to Boston police data.
The Police Department had previously refused to release the video clips of the confrontation with Nave, though the department disclosed the new internal affairs report this week that cites them.
The videos, which do not have audio, show the intersection of Adams and Whitten streets from two angles at 9:31 p.m., March 30, 2019. Both capture six people walking quickly or jogging down the street as police cars with emergency lights flashing pass by. One man, now identified as Nave, walks into the road, and turns with his arms spread out.
The video shows a police officer, later identified as Danilecki, jogging up to Nave, who faces him with his arms still outstretched. Danilecki approaches him and, using his leg, sweeps Nave’s feet out from under him, taking him to the ground.
Blue and red lights from arriving police cars then wash out the video as multiple officers arrive at the scene. Though both videos run for about 30 seconds more, it is unclear whether Danilecki pinned Nave to the ground with his knee.
Other officers have told investigators they did not see whether that happened, according to the internal affairs report.