Video of Milwaukee police arresting and tasing Bucks rookie Sterling Brown in January was released Wednesday by the Milwaukee Police Department.
Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales released the body camera footage at a news conference Wednesday.
In the video, officers surround Brown and slam him onto the pavement and one of them uses a Taser on him.
Brown initially gave his name and showed an identification card. The officer apparently did not recognize him as a player with the Bucks. The officer called for supervisors, who appeared to escalate the situation.
For several minutes, Brown stood calmly outside a Walgreens near West National Avenue and South 26th Street.
That's when the situation became more tense, with police using force on Brown and using profane and racist language. About half a dozen squad cars were on the scene by the end of the confrontation.
A female passenger was in the car at the time, according to several sources.
Department members "acted inappropriately and those members were recently disciplined for their actions," Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said in a statement.
Morales did not name the officers involved. Sources have told the Journal Sentinel two sergeants, Jeffrey S. Krueger and Sean A. Mahnke, were disciplined.
Krueger was promoted to a sergeant last year. Krueger was one of dozens of officers named in a series of federal civil rights lawsuits alleging illegal body and cavity searches by Milwaukee police. He was not characterized as a ringleader and was dismissed from at least one of those suits.
Last year, he received a merit award after he and two officers arrested a shooting suspect. He joined the Milwaukee Police Department in 2006 and received about $100,000 in pay, including about $7,700 in overtime last year.
Mahnke joined the department in 2006 and was paid about $105,000 last year, including nearly $12,000 in overtime pay. Mahnke was praised by the department in 2012 after he got a confession from a teen shooting suspect who fled from a house party.
Police officials have been preparing community leaders for the release of the footage by showing it to Mayor Tom Barrett and other selected local officials, including a closed session of a Common Council committee. Bucks officials also reportedly have seen the video in advance.
Barrett has called the video "disturbing." Council President Ashanti Hamilton said the situation "shouldn't have ended up in the person being tased, handcuffed, arrested and taken to jail."
"I don’t want to debate the humanity of my community anymore," Hamilton said Wednesday.
"I don’t want to debate the humanity of the black males... and then the slightest thing that you can find that they did wrong, and use that as a justification for the actions that’s used against them," he said. "That can’t be a debate in this country anymore."
Ald. Milele Coggs said she expects the video to spark potential change in police training and policy so that "situations like what people will see in this video don’t happen again."
What's known about the arrest
Brown's arrest did not result in criminal charges against him and quickly prompted an internal investigation on the police response, including the role of supervisors.
The incident began about 2 a.m. Jan. 26, when officers doing a business check at the Walgreens near West National Avenue and South 26th Street saw a vehicle parked across two handicap spaces, according to Milwaukee police.
In its initial statement, Milwaukee police said officers spoke with a 22-year-old man about the situation and "an electronic control device was deployed" during the encounter.
Brown had been arrested on a possible misdemeanor charge of resisting or obstructing an officer.
After police officials reviewed the incident, including body camera footage, they decided not to refer him to prosecutors for charges.
Brown was cited for a parking violation, a police spokesman said at the time.
Brown played in a game later that day and had bruises and marks on his face. He told reporters then it was a "personal issue" and declined to discuss it further.
Brown is planning to file a civil rights lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department, attorney Mark Thomsen of Gingras, Cates & Wachs said.
Police chief gives 'message to community'
As of Tuesday, police officials had not asked the district attorney to consider criminal charges against any police personnel involved in the incident.
Police Department officials remained tight-lipped earlier in the week and did not answer questions about possible discipline police personnel could face, citing the ongoing internal investigation.
But on Tuesday, Morales released a video highlighting the department's work in the city.
In the video, titled a "Message to the Community," Morales said he will defend officers when they are right and admit when officers are wrong.
"So if there's ever an incident where one of our members makes a mistake, unnecessarily escalating a situation, I'm going to be honest and transparent about it," he said in the video.
"In those instances where we have made mistakes and are wrong, I'm sorry."
Barrett, who appears in the promotional video, has said it was "not in any way" related to the Brown case.
