90-yr-old grandmother steps in front of cops to protect grandson
Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, May 30
When police stopped a Texas man for an alleged traffic violation, the confrontation turned tense when his 90-year-old grandmother stepped in front of the police to protect her grandson, TV channel CNN reported.
Midland police officers stopped Tye Anders, 21, on May 16 for running a stop sign, the department said in a statement.
Anders, who is a black man, had been driving in a way that aroused suspicion, “making several extreme attempts to elude and avoid me,” a Midland police officer wrote in an affidavit obtained by CNN affiliate KWES and other media. CNN has put in a public records request for the affidavit.
The Midland Police Department released the footage as well on Facebook from an officer’s dashcam video and a 36-minute bodycam video on May 22, six days after the incident.
Terrifying moments for a young Black man and his family in Texas, as numerous cops point guns on him and then assault his 90-year-old grandmother.
His alleged offense: rolling through a stop sign. pic.twitter.com/WdxwFeX1y0
— redfish (@redfishstream) May 27, 2020
It is to be noted that the video does not show the alleged traffic violation; the police say it “occurred prior to activation of the video system.”
Anders was charged with evading in a motor vehicle while police were attempting to detain him, according to a statement from Midland police.
Justin Moore, an attorney for Anders, says his client was racially profiled, and that there was no justification for his arrest.
Anders’ grandmother tried to defuse the situation
Midland police also released four versions of the bodycam video on the department’s Facebook page — Full-length front camera footage, full-length body camera footage, full-length back seat footage and a shortened video with captions, CNN reported.
After Anders pulls into the driveway of his grandmother’s home, the police can be seen and heard on the bodycam video asking Anders to get out of his car, but he initially refused. He stayed in the car for over five minutes before exiting, according to timestamped police bodycam video.
“I do not fault the officers for drawing their weapons,” James A. Gagliano, CNN law enforcement analyst, said. “When he (Anders) wasn’t compliant they (police) had to be suspicious that there was something more there because he was running away from a ticket for running a stop sign. That’s not normal behaviour.”
The police said they asked Anders to walk toward them to be detained, but Anders refused and can be heard in body cam video asking, “Why’d you stop me?” with his hands in the air.
Moments later, Anders can be seen on the bodycam video dropping to his knees to lie down on the front lawn.
“We’re not going to shoot you,” an officer can be heard saying to Anders.
“This was a case of police officers not just doing their job,” he said of Anders’ arrest, “but going above and beyond to be patient and to let this play out when this young man put his hands down by his waist and refused to comply.”
In the police video and in one from a bystander provided to CNN by Anders’ attorney, Anders shouts, over and over, “I’m scared, I’m scared, I’m scared,” and, “Put your guns down” while he’s lying down on his stomach in the front lawn parallel to the driveway he stopped his car in.
The incident happened over a week before the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after being held down by police while being arrested.
