It’s been almost a year since Memphis police lied on their police report, accusing a Black man named Mario Shaw of assaulting them when surveillance video clearly shows them attacking him by punching, kicking, tasering and biting him over a dispute with a neighbor about dog poop.
But as usual, the cops were cleared of any wrongdoing even though they could have been charged with a felony for lying in their report, according to a former cop, prosecutor and defense attorney who discussed the case on a video on his YouTube channel posted below.
However, the Ring video from Shaw’s home was enough for a judge to dismiss all charges against Shaw, including assault on a first responder, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and public intoxication.
Now the 49-year-old man is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Memphis Police Department, according to ABC24 Memphis, which obtained the video from Shaw’s home but was denied body camera footage from Memphis police who claim the incident is still under investigation by internal affairs.
“It destroyed my trust in the Memphis Police Department and ruined my mental [health],” Shaw told ABC24. “When I’m out driving around, I’m looking around worrying about a cop targeting me again.”
Memphis police tried to justify the actions of Memphis police officers Taiyuan Brooks and Kevin Shannon to local media by saying Shaw was “possibly armed” and that they used “less-lethal methods to safely take the suspect into custody.”
But the video makes one wonder why they even had to arrest him in the first place, since all Shaw was holding was a phone in his hand, asking for a police supervisor, telling the officers on the scene to get off his property.
Neighborly Dispute
The incident took place on July 25, 2024, right before midnight, after Shaw got into an argument with a neighbor regarding the neighbor’s dog defecating in his yard, the continuation of a long-running dispute between the two neighbors about their dogs.
The neighbor called police, accusing Shaw of being drunk and threatening him with a gun, local media reported.
When Memphis police arrived, Shaw said he stepped out of his home to talk to them to give his side of the story, but he noticed they began getting aggressive with him.
“I came out and talked to one of the officers and explained to him what was going on, I noticed that the officers seemed to be getting kind of aggressive,” Shaw told ABC24.
Shaw said he walked back into his home to call police and request a supervisor because the cops on the scene were scaring him. He then stepped out of his home with the phone in his hand, which is where the Ring footage posted by ABC24 begins.
The video shows Shaw standing on his front porch holding a phone to his ear as Officer Brooks stands at the end of the walkway to his front door, near the sidewalk at least 40 feet away.
“Get out from my yard!” Shaw tells the cop before turning back around to walk back inside his home.
That was when Brooks runs up the walkway, grabs him and throws him on the ground, punching him several times in the back of the head.
Officer Shannon then runs up and starts tasering Shaw before kicking him several times. One of the cops also bit him twice, leaving him with a visible bite mark on his body.
Shaw said he spent about a week in jail before he was released.
Police Lies
The cops wrote in their report that Shaw was the aggressor and they were the victims.
“The suspect started to physically swing his fist at Officer Brooks striking him in the face,” the cops wrote in their report obtained by ABC24.
“The suspect struck both Officer Shannon and Brooks, the suspect Mario Shaw started to then swing at both officers and also knocked their glasses off.”
The report makes no mention of the cops punching and kicking Shaw, but it does say they felt threatened because he was “possibly armed,” even though they found no gun on him.
Shaw told local media that when he was about to walk back inside, the cop ran up and said something like, “give me your hand.”
“So I put my arm out and I’m assuming he is going to put handcuffs on me, but he decided to start biting me,” Shaw told local media. “The assault just went on from there.”
Memphis police provided ABC24 with the following statement:
According to reports, the officers employed hard-hand techniques and less-lethal methods to safely take the suspect into custody. The officers were initially dispatched in response to a call from the victim, who reported that the suspect had threatened their life and was in possession of a firearm.
After a thorough review of the incident, it was determined that no disciplinary action was warranted. The Memphis Police Department remains committed to transparency and accountability.
However, ABC24 states that they have been requesting body camera footage since January and have yet to receive any.
Furthermore, the fact that the cop ran up to Shaw to attack him as he was walking back into his home using the excuse that Shaw was possibly armed was in complete contrast to officer safety training, according to attorney James White, who posts about police interactions on his YouTube channel, Southern Drawl Law.
“No police officer observing officer safety would ever rush towards a person they thought was armed,” he said. “An objectively reasonable police officer would have taken cover, probably drawn either a firearm or a taser, and started giving verbal commands to Mr. Shaw.”
“The way that they acted is completely inconsistent with what you would do if you were doing what they said they were doing in the report so it’s very clearly a false report, which is actually a C felony under Tennessee law.”
Great Job Carlos Miller & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
