HIGH POINT, N.C. — High Point police have addressed accusations of racial bias and brutality.
This is based on an officer encounter at the Walmart on N. Main Street three weeks ago.
Chief Kenneth Shultz said he wanted to speak to it publicly because the allegations were 'damaging' especially after a month of community relationship building.
"Normally I don't make these things public, but this particular letter was sent to the mayor, to City Council, the police department, and I'm pretty confident it's gone out to the community," Shultz said at a public safety committee meeting Wednesday night. "It highlights some pretty devastating things about the police department, accusations of alleged racial bias and police brutality, extreme failures in training and the quality of our officers."
Shultz is defending his department.
He said it would take a while for body camera footage of the incident at Walmart to be released, due to hurdles placed by the state legislature.
The chief said luckily the department found witness cellphone video on social media that speaks for itself.
"This has been viewed over 183,000 times right now (on social media) and we only have 115,000 citizens in our city."
Officers were responding to Walmart on June 5 in reference to a fight between two people, according to a 911 call.
"There was a disturbance between a man and a woman that appeared to be racially driven and racially motivated," the chief said.
Police said the woman was arrested because she was the one who initiated the violence.
The man was then escorted out by officers because Shultz said he was being threatened.
"The officers decided for his safety, they should escort him," the chief explained.
That's when there was a surprise blow from behind, Shultz said.
"As they were walking to the parking lot trying to figure out where his car was the gentleman came running from behind, struck him violently in the back of the head and tried to run from our officers," he said. "Our officers grabbed him, tackled him to the ground where the guy gave no resistance at all, so our officers backed off on the use of force, immediately handcuffed him, stood him up and walked him away."
In the letter, the writer stated 'this situation only escalated because of the severely poorly trained, inept and incompetent officers.'
"I’ll tell you one of the officers that was out there has less than a year experience in the police department, the other had 16 years," the chief said. "When you read that letter it is extremely concerning but I think what you’re seeing right here (in the video), actually highlights the professionalism of the High Point Police Department."
Shultz said the use of force was minimal and the allegations in the letter are false.
"If you find yourself hearing about a situation in High Point please work with us. Please remember the accusations in this letter versus the video that was actually captured and do what you can to support our agency," Shultz said. "If we’re doing wrong, we’ll admit that. We will go forward and advance from that, but if we’re doing right though we need to support these officers."