Police filmed tasing, beating students in Alabama following noise complaint
Nicholas McCallum
November 10, 2015, 12:59 pm
The officers arrested the three students, charging them later with resisting arrest. Source: Twitter
Police in Alabama were filmed pulling students from their home at 3am Sunday, tasing and beating one with a nightstick while acting on a noise complaint.
Three officers have been put on leave after several videos taken from inside and outside of the house in Tuscaloosa recorded the violent incident that occurred early Sunday morning.
A dozen officers from the city police department and the university were at the home when three students – two men and one woman – were arrested during the police response.
In one video an officer stands at the students' door demanding they come outside, which the University of Alabama students refuse, asking whether they are being arrested or detained.
When the officer enters the apartment, the students ask whether their rights are being infringed, only to be told to "Shut the f***k up."
They tell the officer he is being filmed, but he says: "I don't give a f***k" while holding one student's shirt, trying to pull him outside.
When more officers arrive at the scene the cop illegally takes several steps inside and pulls the man out as other police enter the house and pull the students from the building.
Another video shows police taser one of the men, throw him to the ground and beat him repeatedly with a nightstick.
The woman screams "I haven't done anything" as several officers clamber on top of her.
"They had a girl and two boys on the ground,'' one witness told AL.com.
"They were all screaming and everybody was videoing it."
The videos were handed to the police with Tuscaloosa police chief Steve Anderson stating the internal affairs department would investigate them.
During a press conference on Monday afternoon, Chief Anderson said he was "deeply disturbed" with what he saw in the videos, expressing his disappointment with the officers involved.
"We've got a long way to go in this investigation. Just because we've initially put three officers on administrative leave, by no means [does that] mean that we're at the end of the investigation we're doing," he said, adding the actions of all officers at the scene would be investigated.
Chief Anderson said he was taking the incident personally and will seek to implement changes because he did not want citizens "to fear us or fear our officers".
He also stated that barring "outside of any exigent circumstances" a police officer was not allowed to enter a dwelling without a warrant.
The University of Georgia said it too would review the incident and the police actions.
The three students, 21-year-old Brandon James Williford, Matthew Macia and Caroline Giddis, both 22, have been charged with various offences including obstructing government operations, resisting arrest and harassment.
