Officer Caught in Video Pepper Spraying Handcuffed Youths
Glenford Tillett
In another incident gone viral, a police officer is seen pepper-spraying two young men already in hand-cuffs. As News Five found out, the Commissioner of Police has acted swiftly in the case.
Glenford Tillett, Victim of Alleged Police Brutality
“The police man approaches me a vicious kind of way and ih spray pepper spray in my eye. The man never come and explains what dah the matter, why ih come arrest we. All ih she, put up wih hand, nuh move and then ih put on wih hand cuff.”
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Video captured Glenford Tillett and Clifton Casey in handcuffs when PC David Griffith pepper sprayed both men in their eyes. The officers were at the house in response to an incident earlier that day.
Glenford Tillett
“I just mih feel, like I pass out, cause I never use to pepper spray go in my eye. Deeply ih hurt ih painful.”
Tillett’s mother, Margaret Bull admits that there was an altercation involving her son. She argues, however, that PC Griffith’s response was unjustifiable.
Margaret Bull
Margaret Bull, Mother of Glenford Tillett
“All deh do come out, hand cuff the two of them, and come out, look pan a cartridge shelf weh the down deh. Suh, when ih done from deh, ih gawn to mih son weh the video over dah side. Ih tell ah, “move the camera from outta mih face or else ah wah bax the phone outta your hand and bax yo eena your face”. Glenford react and say “what? Then yo the fool with something different”, that dah weh he reply to the officer. The officer come, tek out the pepper spray and spray two ah them eena ih eye. Deh drop pan the ground, and he hawl them up and she deh the play possum. That dah how the officer the respond to them.”
PC Griffith has since been placed on interdiction. Commissioner of Police Chester Williams commented.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“As a department, we are disgusted at what we saw. The behavior displayed by PC Griffith is not what we stand for. It is not what is going to be countenanced by us. There is no way you can justify two individuals that are handcuffed. If you look at the video, there is nothing that these young men did other than being a bit chatty, and it did not warrant what he did.”
Doris Hemsley, Tillett’s grandmother, responded to the news that PC Griffith would be placed on interdiction.
“What is your response to hearing that news, that he will be dealt with?”
Doris Hemsley
Doris Hemsley, Grandmother of Glenford Tillett
“Well, we wah have to sih that with wih own eyes, because everytime deh guh and chance people, the commissioner seh ih wah do this, ih wah do that, and deh nuh do nothing. So, weh I wah ih do dah just give we justice, because if he nuh give we justice, we wah fight for it.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
