Who is Diabate Hood? Michigan cops seen punching Black man on video, tell him 'he's lucky he's not dead'
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN: Amid the Derek Chauvin trial and police shooting of knife-wielding Ohio teen Ma'Khia Bryant has come a report of alleged use of extreme force by cops against another person of color.
A Grand Rapids police officer could now be facing a lawsuit after he was caught on camera punching a Black man at a traffic stop. The incident took place on March 26, 2021, and the police body camera video of the incident shows what actually went down during the stop.
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According to the latest reports, two of the men in the car were Black, and the passenger who was in the back seat was Latino. The men reportedly say that it was a case of racial profiling.
What happened on March 26, 2021?
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Grand Rapids Police Department said that officers initially pulled the car over for littering. The captured video shows several squad cars at the scene as several police officers approached the men in the Chevrolet sedan. As they walked up to the car, one of them can be heard saying that he saw one of the passengers stuff something under his seat. They apparently also saw someone throw something out of the window.
At the start of the video, police can be seen asking the passenger who threw something out of the window to step out of the car. Simultaneously, several other officers can be heard going back and forth with Hood, who was driving the car and who repeatedly asked why he needed to leave the car if the officers had his license. He also added that he had somewhere to be.
Things started escalating between Hood and the officers as one of the passengers was being frisked. Hood tried to get out of the car, it appears in the video, but he was quickly stopped by officers on both sides of the car. He can then be seen getting pulled out of the passenger side door. In no time, several officers can be seen getting on top of him trying to restrain him - one of these officers punched Hood multiple times in the face.
Hood then screamed out "My eye!" several times while trying to protect his face.
Police say that the stop was a part of their Operation: Safe Neighborhoods in response to a surge in violent crimes. Authorities also added that they had "timely and accurate intelligence" to address felonies and illegal weapons during the operation. However, they did not specify exactly what exactly this intelligence was.
"This is the police work that I expect from my personnel," GRPD Chief Eric Payne said in a statement on Wednesday. "I have made the enforcement of violent crime and the recovery of illegal firearms one of the department’s top priorities."
Police say they found four weapons in the vehicle. The stop ended with three felony arrests.
According to the GRPD, the stop was reviewed by supervisors and members of the department’s Training Unit. The latest reports say that no Internal Affairs complaints have been filed about the incident at this point.
Who is Diabate Hood? 'Another George Floyd'
As per the latest reports, attorney Tyrone Bynum, who represents the three men, identified the driver as Diabate Hood. At the same time, he declined to identify the other two men until he receives more information on their charges. Police have not released their names either. Not a lot of information is available on Hood at the moment.
Bynum said the men should never have been asked to get out of the car. "What I saw in the video was another George Floyd," the attorney said. "My point is why are we to this point anyway? This is a felony-type stop. Why are we asking these guys to get out of the vehicle? Why are we handcuffing them?"
For the attorney, it was particularly noteworthy to hear an officer tell Hood that he is "lucky he’s not dead." "For that to be a statement made in the heat of the moment, that was an honest statement and an honest belief of an officer that believed that was a possibility," Bynum said. "I mean actually stated, he actually said, 'You’re lucky.'"
Since posting the video on social media, Bynum said that many people got in touch with him saying that they believe they were also racially profiled in the same area. He is now working to get more information released on the nature of those stops.