PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – The Prairie View Police Department released new video Monday of the tasing and arrest of a Prairie View City Council member.
The video is from a patrol officer's in-car dashboard camera. No audio accompanies the video, which captured yet another angle of the incident. No camera appeared to capture the initial contact with the group.
The body cameras used by the Prairie View Police Department and many other law enforcement agencies do not record unless the officer turns on the recorder. It appears a few minutes of the encounter passed before the initial officer activated her recorder.
"Do I wish we recorded the whole thing? Sure," Chief Larry Johnson said Monday.
Johnson maintained that the videos appeared to show the councilman, Jonathan Miller, interfering with police and resisting arrest.
In a press conference Monday, the chief also said the case had been forwarded for review by the Waller County District Attorney's Office.
The officers who were involved in the incident last Thursday remain on patrol, according to Johnson.
"I was slammed to the ground, which is why I had dust on my forehead," Miller said. "I'm on the ground. How am I interfering?"
According to Prairie View police, officers approached four men Thursday night and questioned them about recent disturbances or suspicious activity in the area.
While police were questioning the men, Miller, 26, interrupted the investigation, police said.
Miller knew the men being questioned, and many were guests at his home, according to a witness.
At least two witnesses of the arrest told Channel 2 Investigates they believed the police officer who deployed his Taser used excessive force.
"As soon as they started pushing, I pulled out my camera. Because if there's a camera, the officer can't say my battery on my body cam went out or anything like that," Brandon Woodson said.
Woodson recorded part of the incident on his cell phone.
The clip Woodson forwarded to KPRC 2 appeared to show a man being given commands and then falling forward, presumably after the Taser was deployed.
Police said they ordered Miller to step back, but he refused. Miller was then told that he was being placed under arrest for interfering with the investigation.
Police said Miller resisted arrest and that is when they deployed a Taser to subdue him.
Miller was arrested and charged with interfering with a public servant and resisting arrest. He bonded out of the Waller County jail Friday morning.
The officers involved in the incident included a female officer involved in the Sandra Bland arrest, the chief said.
Neither she nor any of the other Prairie View police officers have been suspended or taken off the streets while his department investigates the incident, the chief said.
