Incident 0482-17-1

Incident Description

Portsmouth Police violently arrest a man sitting in his car.

"So viewed, the evidence established that on the afternoon of April 5, 2016, Detectives Hunter and Whitson of the Portsmouth Police Department were 'investigating some narcotics complaints' in the 600 block of Newport Avenue in the City of Portsmouth. Detective Hunter had been assigned to a unit specializing in narcotics transactions for two-and-a-half years of his seven years on the police force. Detective Whitson, a twenty-one-year employee of the police department, had been with the narcotics unit for four years.

The detectives observed the appellant sitting alone in a black Lexus, leaning back in the driver's seat and '[not] moving around.' The vehicle was parked in front of a fence that bordered a 'shop of some sort.' The detectives drove their unmarked police car past the Lexus and executed a U-turn, without activating their lights or siren. As the detectives again approached the Lexus in their car, the appellant looked in their direction. The detectives parked approximately twenty-five feet away and watched the appellant's car for 'a minute or so.'

....The detectives, who were wearing police vests and patches, exited their car and started walking toward the Lexus. The appellant again looked in their direction...

[T]he detectives verbally identified themselves as police officers and demanded that Hill show his hands. After shouting at appellant... to show his hands, the detectives grabbed his left forearm, physically removed him from the vehicle, and placed him in handcuffs."