APD Chief Art Acevedo is set to address this incident Thursday evening.
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King can be heard crying on footage from the officer’s dash cam and obtained by KVUE and the Austin-American Statesman newspaper.
“If something is wrong, everyone needs to be held accountable”, King said. Richter then tries to leg sweep, or trip, her. He yells for her to put her hands behind her back and tells her he is “about to Tase” her. As she began doing so, he grabbed her by the arm and yanked her forcefully out of the auto, and then body slammed her onto the parking lot pavement. Finally, the officer lifts her up and pushes her against the hood of his auto. “I can absolutely pull you over if you are already stopped, yes”. That mindset-I can not denounce what he had to say any stronger. “I get beat up for Black Lives Matter. Do not touch me”.
Richter asks her to stand up and nearly immediately reaches into the vehicle. Moments later, she was being pulled from her vehicle by officer Bryan Richter and thrown to the ground-twice.
“Ma’am, you were about to go inside without a wallet, so I know you were only coming here because you know I was coming to pull you over”, Richter responds.
King tries to tell the officer that she had pulled up in the vehicle park and was about to go inside a shop. In a second video, King is seen in the backseat of APD officer Patrick Spradlin’s squad vehicle, discussing race and law enforcement. The subsequent conversation between the officers and King in the squad auto is also being investigated for possible racist overtones. It was captured on video.
“Are you serious?” King replies.
“Don’t touch me”, she says again as the cop reaches inside and grabs her.
“I asked God why, is there something that I’ve done?”
Richter then appears to struggle handcuffing King, who asks him, “Why are you doing this to me?” “But for reason, for some unusual reason, when people look like me, we’re more of a threat, and that means we get treated and thrown around as if we don’t matter”. “They have more rights”. I’m not saying I can prove it or nothing. She adds that a lot of people are “afraid of black people”.
“I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way”, Spradlin said. In Bland’s case, the encounter escalated when she asked one question: “Why do I have to put out my cigarette?” I’m not saying anything. I’m not saying it’s true – not saying I can prove it or nothing. That’s why a lot of the white people are afraid. Am I treating someone like they robbed a bank?
KVUE and the Statesman first learned about the videos Monday when the district attorney’s office was opening an investigation.
In response, King told the officer she was getting out and that he should not touch her.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters Thursday he was sorry for what happened to King after Officer Bryan Richter approached her in a Wendy’s parking lot to write her a ticket for going 50 miles per hour where the speed limit is 35. “There’s a way to do this job, and that day, we did not approach it anywhere near the way we should’ve approached it”. There is also a criminal investigation into Richter’s handling of King; Acevedo says that information will be given to the DA’s Office and they’ll make the decision on whether or not a Grand Jury will hear the case.
Officials in Austin are investigating a violent arrest, which stemmed from a traffic stop for speeding. “There’s a problem that this was not kicked up to our level back in ’15”, he stated.
The video shows not only the arrest but the scene afterward, when the second officer, Patrick Spradlin, asks King, “Why are so many people afraid of black people?”. Issues of bias. Issues of racism.
King was charged with resisting arrest, but prosecutors dropped those charges as soon as they saw that video. I am grateful and I feel it is a step, the first step necessary.
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On meeting with local activists Wednesday after learning about King’s arrest: “As disheartened as I am as your police chief to stand here, apologizing to the community”.
