Maryland deputies are under fire after two shocking videos emerged of them detaining a paralyzed Black man, causing him to fall out of his car and forcing him to sit on the ground. Sources say the officers mistook him for a different suspect and reacted before verifying his identity.
The two viral videos of the incident, recorded by the man’s wife on her cellphone, have sparked outrage, especially after the man and his wife can be heard pleading with the cops to consider her husband’s disability.
Shocking video shows Black man dragged out of a car without his wheelchair by Maryland deputies who thought he was a wanted criminal (Childofgod/TikTok)
The footage was uploaded on TikTok with the caption, “Do anyone know a lawyer in Charles County Maryland? This is how they treated my paralyzed husband.”
The incident lasted approximately 10 minutes.
“I’ll need you to come out so I can talk to you,” said the deputy.
Watch the full video here.
The man answered, “No problem. I’m paralyzed, you want me to just come out?” and requested to get his wheelchair out of his trunk.
During the initial interaction, the man is calm and compliant to the officer’s wishes — even asking him to help him get out of the vehicle.
The officer ignores the petition.
The driver tries to open the car door while seated in his vehicle. The deputy helps the man out, but seems to not realize that he really has no control of his body, and he droops to the ground.
The “suspect” asks, “You gonna just drag me?”
His wife yells out in distress, “He’s paralyzed, he can’t walk, he’s a paraplegic.”
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As he is falling, the deputy and another officer attempt to lift the man and sit him on the ground briefly. The man is shocked as the officer seems clueless about how to handle the detainment of a person who cannot walk.
“Why y’all set me on the ground, though,” the man asks, to which the principal officer says, “We trying to help you out.”
Eventually, the officers do help him, lifting him back into his car and his wife gets his wheelchair. She sets the wheelchair on the roadside as an investigation into the case is underway.
He says that how they are handling him is “f##ked up.”
“You know why it’s f##ked up? You can talk to a person and figure out how to do things better,” he said.
The man asks the officers if their cameras are on and establishes that the officers do not have bodycams on, only cameras on in their patrol vehicles. Next he asks for the lead officer’s name and badge number.
The man has no idea as to what is going on and asks the officers to explain what he did. He is told that they want to detain him as they investigate a crime that has happened in the area, believing he matches the description of the suspect.
The wife assures them they have the wrong person.
Despite the couple’s pleas, the officers are seen on the recording placing handcuffs on the man while he is in his wheelchair.
The recording never stops, and after some time it captures the officers returning to the man and his wife, confessing they had mistaken his identity and apologizing for “the inconvenience,” as they uncuffed him.
As of this writing there is no update on actions taken by the couple after the posting of the videos.