BALTIMORE COUNTY — Body-camera footage shows the moments prosecutors say Corporal Zachary Small crossed the line into excessive use of force. The Baltimore County Police Department released that footage today.
We reported last week that Cpl. Small was indicted on charges of assault, reckless endangerment, excessive use of force, and misconduct in office for an incident on September 27 in Baltimore City.
An armed robbery suspect escaped police custody at Johns Hopkins Hospital. While waiting to be transported back to the police precinct, the man was banging his head against the window trying to get officers' attention, telling them he couldn't breathe in the back of the car with all the windows rolled up. He cannot be seen hitting the window in the video, but another officer can be heard saying, 'Stop banging on the door, bruh.' More than a dozen officers were interviewed as witnesses; their accounts, combined with the footage, form the basis for the indictment.
Cpl. Small tells the suspect, 'you break that window, you're gonna get the whole f***ing can of pepper spray.' The suspect repeatedly tells the officer he can't breathe. Cpl. Small responds, 'I don't care,' then attempts to shut the door to the patrol car, but the man's knee is blocking the door. He again tells Cpl. Small he can't breathe, to which Small responds, "Yes you can. There's air in there, stop."
The suspect tells him the air is not on, and says "Please don't kill me like this." That's when Cpl. Small sprays him in the face with pepper spray. Corporal Small can then be seen shutting the car door, and walking away. Police department policy requires officers to offer water and a towel to someone as soon as possible after pepper spraying them.
When he's told the man is trying to break the window, Cpl. Small runs back and pulls him out of the car and throws him on the ground. He pulls his hair and yanks his head back, telling him, ‘you asked for it. I warned you." The man says all he did was ask for the window to be opened. Cpl. Small tells him he warned him to stop banging on the window, and "that's not the way this works. This isn't f***ing McDonald's. You don't get it your way. You already escaped once, what do you think you're gonna get?" The suspect pleaded with officers not to place him back in the patrol car, because there would still be pepper spray in the air, and it was too hot. Officers put him back in the car and shut the door. A few moments later, an officer can be heard warning the man he's about to get sprayed again if he doesn't stop kicking the window. That happened once more. He asked officers for water, and was told they didn't have any. He was eventually taken back to the Woodlawn Police Precinct.
Baltimore County police officers Jacob Roos and Justin Graham-Moore are also charged with misconduct in office in this case. They're accused of breaking a new law that requires officers to intervene when another officer is using excessive force. Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates says this is the first time his office has charged someone for violating that law.
“Gone are the days when officers can just stand by and turn a blind eye as their fellow officers violate the individual rights or do worse."
There are other officers around throughout the incident as well. We asked State’s Attorney Bates why they weren’t charged for failing to intervene, but Roos and Graham-Moore are.
"What we did is we took and we looked at every single officer’s body camera to figure out what they could see and what they couldn’t see. So what we really did is looking at every single officer, what we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt," Bates responded. "Just because an officer may have been there, what did they actually know was going on? What did they see? Where were they, how close were they to what was going on?"
Bates acknowledged the Baltimore County Police Department’s transparency and cooperation throughout the investigation. "Because it was Baltimore County, we don’t have the body camera footage of Baltimore County officers. And I think it says a lot about Baltimore County’s police department that when they saw it, they referred it to us."
Cpl. Small was initially charged with first-degree assault, but that charge was dismissed. He is still charged with second-degree assault. Bates said that was a call he made. “With prosecutors, you’re constantly re-evaluating your case. Over the weekend, I took a lot of time to re-evaluate the case, look at all the evidence, look at what we need to prove, look at potential expert testimony, and it was very important that if we do charge individuals, that we charge them where I do feel we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
When reached for comment last week regarding the initial indictment announcement, an attorney for Cpl. Small told WMAR-2 News: “My client is a twenty year veteran of the Baltimore County Police Department. Before that he served his country honorably in the army as a military police officer for six years. Like all citizens, Officer Small is entitled to the presumption of innocence I would ask everyone to reserve judgment until the facts come out at trial. When they do, we are confident that he will be fully exonerated."
Bates announced those three indictments today, plus two more against officers in Baltimore City. One case involved a car crash in June of last year while an officer was on duty, driving her patrol car.
Officer Alexia Davis is charged with reckless driving and other traffic violations after hitting a motorcycle rider on Sinclair Lane in Northeast Baltimore. The victim ended up needing her leg amputated.
In the third case, Detective June Hall is charged with theft for falsifying her time cards. BPD’s Ethics Unit reported she entered hours on her time sheet that she didn’t work, and used a BPD vehicle for personal errands.
“The cases we've discussed today poorly reflect the otherwise upstanding and dedicated public servants in the Baltimore County and Baltimore City police departments,” Bates said at today’s news conference.
All of the indicted officers have their first court dates on March 13.
In regards to the Baltimore County incident, the department released the following statement:
"The Baltimore County Police Department launched an investigation after discovering an incident in Baltimore City that involved a use of force. Since the incident took place in a neighboring jurisdiction, the Department followed standard operating procedures and informed local authorities. The Baltimore County Police Department takes pride in its commitment to transparency and meeting the expectations of the community. “I expect members of the Baltimore County Police Department to treat all people with the utmost dignity and respect,” said Chief Robert McCullough.
