A Black father called the police after his daughter was allegedly abducted by her mother. And despite needing help, the father found himself handcuffed and on the ground. He was understandably concerned about his daughter's well-being and safety, which caused extremely heightened emotions. This led the police to pin him to the ground and handcuff him.
A bystander caught the entire encounter with the police on video, and the video has been circulated widely thanks to social media. Shortly after the video went viral, things only got worse for the father.
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The father called police after his daughter was taken from his home.
Darnay Cockrell, a Black man in Arizona, called 911 on August 6, after the mother of his 4-year-old daughter allegedly took the girl from his home without permission.
He said that his ex showed up at his home and wouldn't leave. Then, when he wasn't looking, she grabbed the child and left. When the police showed up at his home, things escalated in a way that Cockrell could not have expected.
Cockrell soon found himself pinned to the ground.
A neighbor happened to be outside when the police arrived and filmed Cockrell's interaction with the police. At first he is standing and talking to the officers in the parking lot, clearly in a heightened emotional state. Soon, two of the officers were using takedown maneuvers to get Cockrell on the ground while he repeatedly asked them to stop.
At no time do the police officers explain why he's suddenly being restrained, tell him if he's under arrest, or what they're doing. "Just put my hands man," Cockrell says. "I'm not going to the ground here." He then put his hands behind his back.
"Here, here, just put my hands, so we just stop, please would you stop?" he says in the video.
Cockrell spoke about the way the police treated him in his moment of need.
"It makes me feel less than a person," Cockrell told local news ABC15 in an interview. "What do you expect the next time — for me to call the police? I won't do that no more in my lifetime."
The bystander video shows the police officers forcibly taking Cockrell to the ground, including kicking his legs out from under him to get him to comply.
The Mesa Police Department has yet to publicly release the police bodycam footage, but did allow ABC15 to view the footage. The handcuffing happened several minutes after the police arrived. They can be heard asking Cockrell to sit down, but he didn't.
"Don’t touch me anymore, I swear to God, don’t touch me anymore," Cockrell can be heard saying from the ground. "You brought this upon yourself," the officer replied.
"Man, I’m pissed off. How the f— you going to feel if somebody got your kid?" he asks.
The police department maintains the officers were following protocol, but said they'd be trained.
In a written statement shared by the news outlet, the Mesa PD explained the reason Cockrell was handcuffed. They said he had "high level of emotion, which is understandable; however, because emotions were so high, he was not following reasonable directions given to him by the officer and made comments that spiked concern for officer safety."
They also shared that the girl was returned to Cockrell, and the mother arrested. Cockrell has since filed a complaint with Mesa Police Department. The police department told ABC15 that they didn't find any policy violations, but first responding officer is newly graduated from the police academy and has only been on patrol duty for two months. Both officers involved in the handcuffing will be given additional training.
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The father has since lost his job.
The video of Cockrell's interaction with the police went viral, being shared widely on Instagram by the neighbor who filmed it. After the video went viral, Cockrell claimed that he was let go from his job because he had on a shirt bearing the company's name when he was handcuffed.
A neighbor has set up a GoFundMe to help Cockrell pay bills and care for his daughter while he looks for a new job.
