TASERED AT WAL-MART
Chris Hawes reports
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FORT WORTH - Just one month after a Fort Worth man's death was ruled a homicide in connection to being Tasered, another incident has raised criticism directed at the Fort Worth Police Department's use of the weapon.
Police used a Taser on Antwone Freeman as he held a child in his arms at a Fort Worth Wal-Mart. Surveillance video captured the incident; it is that video that both the police department and Freeman says speaks for itself.
Freeman went to Wal-Mart to pick up a wallet he left at the store. That trip ended with three officers wrestling Freeman to the ground and then stunning him with a Taser.
Video shows Freeman walking up to the service counter with his nephews.
"Mr. Freeman was very agitated, animated," said a Fort Worth Police Department spokesman. "He was creating a disturbance within the Wal-Mart."
Freeman said that isn't true. He said as he was talking with a friend and an employee, a Fort Worth officer told him to "shut up" because he was on a phone call.
"I'm like, 'Shut up? You shut up,'" Freeman said.
Officer Yatashka Jefferson can then be seen approaching Freeman, who he told he was taking to jail. Freeman said the officar also told him the children would be taken to Child Protective Services.
"With no audio, it can't be confirmed what was said," the public information said.
Freeman called 911, requesting a police supervisor. Once the sergeant arrived, they began moving in on Freeman to arrest him. Freeman then picked up his crying one-year-old nephew.
"I was dialing 911," he said.
"Mr. Freeman picked up one of his children and backed himself into a corner holding his child in front of him, possibly as a shield," the PIO said.
"Well, basically, I was barely picking him up, and when he grabbed me by my neck my nephew was here," Freeman said. "So, when he grabbed me, we both were going."
The police spokesman said officers continued to wrestle with Freeman because they "were trying to get Mr. Freeman to cooperate and comply."
"There's nothing I can do but try to hold him here so he won't fall and hit the ground," Freeman said.
After an officer pressed a Taser to his thigh, stunning him, a Wal-Mart manager picked up the child.
"The important thing to remember is the officers only engaged Mr. Freeman physically whenever they thought the child was in peril and the child was being suffocated in Mr. Freeman's grasp," the spokesman said.
Freeman went to jail for allegedly resisting arrest, endangering a child and head butting an officer.
But, in June, there was a twist. Officer Jefferson was arrested and stripped of his gun and badge on charges of assaulting his wife and firing a gun at another person.
The Fort Worth District Attorney's Office dropped all charges against Freeman. The case against Jefferson continues.
"My heart goes out to any policeman," Freeman said. "They go out and they serve every day. It's people like him who give police a bad name."
The department conducted an internal investigation of Jefferson's behavior in the Freeman case but concluded he did nothing wrong.
Freeman is considering filing a law suit against the department.
