Viral video of the arrest of a wheelchair-bound man in Louisiana is causing an uproar online and raising questions about the necessity of the force police used when they took him into custody.
The cellphone footage shows the moments leading up to the arrest during the early morning hours of Dec. 1 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in which police officers are seen wheeling away a man in a wheelchair, then forcefully pulling him from the chair and cuffing him on the ground.
Tyler Laday, the man arrested, said he was with a group of friends at 1 a.m. that night when they first encountered police.
Lake Charles Police Chief Shawn Caldwell said that someone called 911 to report that the group was “being loud, disruptive, and disturbing them.”
“We gave them multiple warnings to tone it down and to leave,” Caldwell told KPLC.
Laday said he and his friends complied with police orders and were leaving, but the incident only escalated after a verbal exchange with the officers.
“They walked up to us, he asked us, ‘Could y’all leave this parking lot because y’all trespassing.’ We started walking off,” Laday said.
In the video, Laday and the officers are seen engaging in some back-and-forth until one cop pulls Laday’s wheelchair back as he’s rolling away with his friends.
At that point, several others surround Laday and begin arguing with the police.
“You’re on camera,” one person shouts at an officer.
“I don’t care! Would you rather he get arrested or just leave?” the officer responds.
Meanwhile, Laday is yelling at the officers.
In the video, one cop is heard telling him to leave again and requesting his friends to escort him away, but he suddenly grabs the handle of Laday’s wheelchair and forcibly pulls Laday away from his friends.
As one person tries to take the chair back, both officers pull their Tasers and point them at the group.
When the officers make it to their police cruiser, one drags Laday out of his wheelchair and forces him to the ground in an attempt to cuff him as people scream and shout in protest.
“He was like, ‘Put your hands behind your back.’ How do you expect me to put my hands behind my back? I’m in a wheelchair,” Laday said. “I said, ‘Put my cuffs in my front.’ I say, ‘No, I’m not putting my hands behind my back.’ So when I said that, he grabbed me, threw me on the ground, twisted me up, put my hands behind my back, and put me in cuffs.”
Several people who saw the video on social media were shocked by the way the officers carried out the arrest.
“I’m floored,” another person commented.
Chief Caldwell agreed that the video didn’t look “pretty,” but that police officers use the same tactics when arresting an individual, regardless of whether that person is standing or seated.
“They’re going to use harsh words, they’re going to use body language, because that is what the crowds respond to in some of these circumstances. There’s nothing pretty about this video, and sometimes it isn’t pretty, the job that we do. That’s why if people comply with what we’re asking, everything goes much easier,” Caldwell said.
Laday argued that the officers didn’t have to use as much force as they did during the arrest.
“Even if I did something wrong, y’all didn’t have to handle the situation like that. Y’all could’ve handled it differently,” Laday maintained. “You feel me, I’m in the wheelchair, it’s not like I can just jump off. How can I resist y’all? I’m in a wheelchair, I’m not going nowhere, y’all didn’t have to do it like that.”
The 22-year-old was charged with disturbing the peace, trespassing, resisting a police officer with force or violence, and battery of a police officer.
Police have not launched an internal investigation into the incident. Laday says he plans to file a complaint against the agency.
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