MPD hired officer accused of striking,
using stun gun on unarmed Black man
Minneapolis police chief orders ‘full
investigation’ into hiring of former Virginia officer Tyler Timberlake
Fairfax County police officer Tyler Timberlake
was arrested after using a stun gun on an unarmed, disoriented Black man
multiple times, hitting him in the head with the Taser and kneeling on his back
and neck. Screen shot from Fairfax County Police Department video
The Minneapolis Police Department
hired a Virginia police officer who was charged with — but acquitted of —
assaulting an unarmed Black man in distress just days after Minneapolis police
officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on a south Minneapolis street.
Body camera footage showed that within
seconds of arriving on the scene, Officer Tyler Timberlake repeatedly used his
Taser on the man and hit him in the head with the stun gun, then kneeled on his
neck and back after the man fell to the ground.
A Minneapolis spokesman confirmed that
Timberlake began working for the MPD on Jan. 9.
After the Reformer inquired about
Timberlake’s hiring, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara released a statement
Tuesday saying he was “extremely concerned” to learn about the hiring and
directed staff to complete a thorough investigation. He said Timberlake is
still in training and hasn’t yet been deployed into service at MPD.
“The individual in question will not
be deployed or serve in a law enforcement capacity in any way until we conclude
a full investigation into this matter,” he continued. “We will get to the
bottom of this and take whatever measures are necessary to ensure we are always
hiring officers who meet our standards and that we are ultimately placing only
the most qualified and competent police into the service and protection in the
city of Minneapolis.”
Asked how Timberlake’s past was
missed, when a Google search turns up dozens of stories about the case, an MPD
spokesman said, “The chief has committed to take any and all appropriate action
to correct the matter once all the facts are known and to institute any
necessary changes to the backgrounds vetting process for the department.”
Timberlake was a Fairfax County police
officer on June 5, 2020 when police were called about a man walking around in
circles on a residential street and shouting that he needed oxygen, according
to a Washington Post account of the incident.
The incident was captured by a body
camera on the first officer who arrived on the scene. It shows a paramedic and
officer approach a man named La Monta Gladney, who is wearing a white tank top
and blue jeans and rambling incoherently. Later, investigators found cocaine
and PCP in his system.
The first officer on the scene and the
paramedic try to coax Gladney into a waiting ambulance.
The video doesn’t indicate that
Gladney, who was unarmed, was a threat to anyone, aside from walking aimlessly
in the middle of a residential street.
Less than three minutes into the video,
Timberlake, then an eight-year veteran of the department, arrives, walks
swiftly toward Gladney and says “Get on the ground, Anthony,” calling Gladney
by the wrong name.
Timberlake would later testify that he
thought Gladney was another man wanted for violent crimes.
Seconds after his approach, Timberlake
uses a Taser on Gladney, causing Gladney to fall on his back. Then Timberlake
tells him to roll over and jams his knees into Gladney’s neck and back; Gladney
then shouts for help.
As Gladney repeatedly yells “DeeDee,”
Timberlake holds the Taser on his back and hits him in the head with the stun
gun before Tasering him again on the back of his neck.
Then, as several officers handcuff
Gladney, the man repeatedly says, “I can’t breathe DeeDee!” The officers and
paramedic roll him onto his side.
Gladney was taken to a hospital,
treated and released. He was later charged with being drunk in public and
resisting arrest, but the charges were dropped a week later, according to
WHSV-TV.
A day after the incident, the county
attorney and Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. held a press
conference, where Roessler called Timberlake’s actions horrible, unacceptable,
criminal and a violation of department policies, according to the Washington
Post.
Timberlake was arrested and charged
with three counts of misdemeanor assault and battery and relieved of duty.
A prosecutor told a judge presiding
over the case that when Timberlake was arrested, he “was already in the process
of moving to Minneapolis,” according to WTOP News. The prosecutor said after
the June 5 incident, Timberlake “didn’t turn in his body-worn camera at the end
of his shift — he went home sick, and didn’t turn it in the next day,” WTOP
reported.
Nearly two years later, in March 2022,
Timberlake was acquitted of the assault charges by a Fairfax County jury.
Timberlake said during the trial that
in addition to mistaking Gladney for someone else, he thought Gladney was a
threat because he appeared to be on drugs. Timberlake testified that he wasn’t
trying to hurt the man, but get him help, and that people on the drug PCP can
be unusually strong and often don’t respond to pain the same way a sober person
does.
The prosecutor said mistaking Gladney
for someone else didn’t justify what Timberlake did, according to WHSV-TV.
Gladney did not testify during the
trial, but sued Timberlake and the county and later settled for $150,000,
according to the Post. In the suit’s court filings, Gladney said he was in the
street trying to get help for a friend who fell unconscious.
Lt. John Crone of the Fairfax Police
Department told the Reformer that Timberlake returned to the Virginia
department after being acquitted, but “left on his own accord,” although he
didn’t know when.