Alabama Police Use Body Cam To Clear Cops Amid Abuse Claims, Death Threats

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Police in Rainbow City, near Birmingham, say they used body camera footage to refute social media claims that they beat a suspect and threw him off a bridge.

Police Chief Jonathon Horton said he knew he had to do something when allegations about his officers mistreating a suspect began appearing on Facebook and rapidly spreading. A woman who identified herself as the mother of the suspect's children posted that he was "beat half to death" by police officers and pushed off a bridge Thursday night.

"We'd received more than 100 messages threatening to do all sorts of things, rape and kill our wives and children and launch an all-out war on police," Horton said in an interview Monday. "It was pretty crazy stuff."

Body cameras have been known to monitor police behavior, but Horton opted to use it to clear his officers of any wrongdoing. He posted a 30-plus minute video on the department's Facebook page, showing officers talking to Jonathan Dawon Davis, 29, during a traffic stop.

Davis was sought on felony warrants for a drug-related charge and a probation revocation, as well as a misdemeanor warrant for driving with a suspended license, Horton said.

The video showed the man fleeing and jumping off a bridge over a creek when told that police knew his identity. Officers later under the bridge help the man, who had a bloody mouth and screamed about a broken leg.

Horton said officers neither prompted the man to jump nor struck him, but they did use a stun gun on Davis when they first located him along a creek bank under the bridge because he was still trying to get away.

The woman whose original message sparked the threats later posted that all she had to go on was a loved one's word "until the body cam was released."

"I truly believed he was done wrong and we needed help. Excuse me for being human." There was no response to a message left on Facebook seeking comment.

Davis was charged with using a false identification to obstruct justice, resisting arrest and attempting to elude, Horton said. Currently hospitalized for a broken leg, busted teeth and other injuries suffered in the fall, he will be jailed later.

A woman who was in the car with Davis was charged with resisting arrest for allegedly trying to hide Davis' identity from police, Horton said, and officers are researching whether charges are possible against the woman whose Facebook post prompted threats.

Horton said the wave of threats toward officers stopped after the video was posted, and he hopes the worst is over.

While police critics and advocates seeking better oversight of law enforcement have pushed for bodycam videos to help prevent abuses by police, Horton said video may actually help both his officers and police elsewhere.

"I'd hate for some guy to get radicalized and think it was true and take it out on some poor cop somewhere else," Horton said. "That was the real thing that pushed me to do it."

By Jay Reeves, Associated Press

Image via Shutterstock