Caught On Tape: Officers' Convenience Store Rant
WSB-TV
Sat May 22, 2010
Area: Atlanta
CHEROKEE COUNTY, Georgia - A local police officer is captured on security video threatening to use his Taser on the owner of a Shell Gas station in Cherokee County, while also threatening to "Send him back to India."
That officer was one of several police inside the man's store. They were furious that he hadn't rushed to the store in the middle of the night to give the officers security video they wanted.
"I want the tapes now. I want the tapes now, sir. Do you know what obstruction is? You are obstructing the investigation of an armed robbery," said Sgt. Lamar Jones to the convenience store owner.
Channel Two Action News investigative reporter Richard Belcher acquired security camera footage from the incident that occurred on May 2, 2008 showing Canton police clearly abusing their power.
Officer Threatens To Taser Store Owner
Police Reprimanded For Treatment Of Store Owner
Near midnight on May 2, the police officers entered the Shell gas station on Marietta Highway looking for two suspects who robbed a man of a few dollars and a cell phone in the neighborhood next door.
On the phone with owner, Hamid Lavassani, police demanded that he come in to the store immediately to give them access to interior and exterior security videos.
"I need the video from your store tonight," said Jones. Lavassani informs the officers that he will be in early the following morning to give them the video they had requested.
Jones responded saying, "OK, I'm shutting your store down. I'm going to leave an officer here and nobody can come into the store."
Lavassani told Belcher that he thought he had a good relationship with the Canton Police Department and that he even knew some of the officers and had supplied them with video previously. "I also had to go to court to testify on their behalf," he said.
Neither Lavassani nor his clerk were wanted for anything, but Detective Rodney Campbell, Jones, Officer Dan Combs and Officer Jason Yarbrough wanted his video right then.
While demanding that he come in immediately or have his store closed, Lavassani said his security system captured the officers wandering through his store without a search warrant. The tape shoes officers saying, "It's our store now! That son of a ****! That son of a ****! **** him! I'm going to start cooking some hot dogs. They'll be ready by the time he arrives."
One even helps himself to a soft drink. All the while they were cursing and threatening Lavassani and his clerk.
"As soon as that mother***** comes up here, I'm going to spray him. Snatch him. He'll come in here sideways," officers said in anticipation of Lavassani's arrival.
The officers continue saying, "I wish I had that damn Taser though. Seriously. Oh, that mother****, I'd - I would Tase his *** back to god **** India. That's what I'm preparing to do - get that video and throw him back out."
Fearing that the police will damage his store, Lavassani told Belcher that he decided not to wait until morning. An outside camera recorded his arrival. In 10 minutes he is on the ground and on the way to jail. He was charged with four felony counts of obstructing an officer.
The arrest warrants accused Lavassani of fighting with an officer. Cherokee County District Attorney Gary Moss refused to prosecute and didn't even ask the grand jury to consider charges.
"After seeing the video, then I realized that the whole time their plan was to do exactly what they had done. For me to come up so they can teach me a lesson. I guess they can feel like, since they are police officers, they have a right to do whatever they want to do," said Lavassani.
After a brief internal investigation, Jones was reprimanded for violating the code of ethics, unsatisfactory performance and unbecoming conduct. He was not suspended.
Campbell was reprimanded for unbecoming conduct. He was not suspended.
Lavassani told Belcher that at first he was humiliated, then furious, but now baffled, "I just wonder after two years how come nothing has been done. They are still out on the street."
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