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Man accuses Mesa police officers of ignoring requests during a painful arrest

Published  June 20, 2018 6:45am MST
Matt Rodewald's Reports
FOX 10 Phoenix

MESA, Ariz. (KSAZ) - In the aftermath of recent officer involved shootings in Mesa, as well as several violent arrests by Mesa police in the past few weeks, the East Valley police department continues to come under scrutiny by many in the community.

On Tuesday, another man has come forward to claim that Mesa police officers ignored his repeated requests for help, while he was being detained.

"I think you're gonna see more community members say 'this is what happened to me with Mesa Police', or 'this is the experiences I had'", said East Valley NAACP President Roy Tatem.

That began Tuesday, with Terrence Kirkpatrick.

"Anything I see a police officer, I'm very uncomfortable," said Kirkpatrick.

He said he called police in November 2017 for someone breaking and entering his apartment. However, an exchange of another kind eventually took place.

"Dude, my [expletive] wrists hurt," said Kirkpatrick, in the video.

"Yeah, it's supposed to," the officer shouted. "You want to fight us? You think we are going to put those on lightly?"

"Dude, I'm not fighting y'all," Kirkpatrick replied.

"Stay right there, DO NOT MOVE!" the officers shouted.

"These are restraint devices. These are not weapons. These are meant to keep somebody restrained," said attorney Anthony Ramirez, as he held a pair of handcuffs in his left hand. "The field training officer told mr. Kirkpatrick, no, they are supposed to hurt."

"Every scene is different," said Nik Rasheta with Mesa police, during a news briefing in regards to an officer involved shooting that happened earlier on Tuesday. "So, when we respond to a scene, we want to understand what happened. We don't want to be said what is being said right away."

The department is well aware of the spotlight, after two videos of excessive force went viral earlier in June.

"The police have had to release video after video after video of conduct from the mesa police," said Tatem. "So, the public is well aware of what is happening."