No Excuse For Cop Who Held Gun To Unarmed Suspect's Head: CMPD

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said he does not defend police officer actions shown in video of a March 2016 incident that ended with officers chasing a suspect on foot, tackling and punching him repeatedly while he laid face down on the ground. The videos reveals one officer pressed his service pistol to the man’s head. That officer now works as a patrol officer in the Town of Davidson.

Putney said he has asked for court approval to release all videos to the public, The Charlotte Observer has reported.

The stunning CMPD body cam video released earlier this week is of a March 26, 2016 incident following a car stop for a vehicle believed to be connected to a series of larcenies, according to WBTV. James Yarborough was a passenger in the car, and told the reporter he was just getting a lift back to his truck that had run out of gas when the car he was in was pulled over. He said the driver had tried to sell him a pistol. “When police stopped the car, Yarborough said, he decided it would be better to run away from the pistol than get charged with having a gun,” WBTV said.

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WBTV posted video of the incident from the vantage point of two police body cameras. You can see the videos of the incident here and here. “I will kill you. You understand?” one of the four officers is heard saying as they struggled with Yarborough. Officer Jon Dunham was identified as the officer who put his gun to Yarborough's head, the station said.

Cpl. Jon Dunham/ Photo via Town of Davidson

Putney called a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the video, three days after the shocking images were reported by local media. During the April 27 press conference, Putney said “CMPD says they don’t encourage cops to put a weapon close to a suspect in any manner,” Charlotte Observer reporter LaVendrick Smith tweeted.

CMPD confirmed that Yarborough was being detained during a felony car stop when he ran from officers. They chased him on foot for more than three minutes before they caught him.

“Officer Dunham and other officers attempted to arrest the suspect who was resisting and refused officers commands to comply and show them both of his hands to ensure that he did not have a gun,” a CMPD spokesperson told Charlotte Patch Monday evening in an emailed statement. “Officer Dunham subsequently drew his service weapon and pointed it at the suspect in order to gain compliance and place him under arrest.”

Yarborough was initially charged with possession of a firearm by a felon after a gun was found in the vehicle in addition to resisting arrest, but both of those charges were later dismissed.

Following the incident, CMPD’s Internal Affairs Unit conducted an investigation and found “that due to the totality of the events,” Dunham’s use of force was not in violation of the police department’s policies, CMPD said. The department did recommend he receive additional verbal communication training following the incident, the CMPD statement said. Before Dunham could receive it, however, he quit and joined the police force in Davidson, N.C.

Three days later during the April 27 press conference, however, Putney said Dunham left CMPD before an internal investigation could be completed, according to Smith.

Less than two months following the incident, Dunham took his oath at the Davidson Police Department during a town board meeting May 10, 2016, according to a report in the Herald Weekly at the time.

“Unfortunately, it’s not at all uncommon for officers to leave one agency (often because they are either fired or they resign during an investigation) only to be hired by another agency,” University of South Carolina law professor, former police officer and policing expert Seth Stoughton told Charlotte Patch. It’s so common, there’s an industry term for it: Gypsy Cops.

Stoughton said the video released earlier in the week was concerning in “how the officers are telling the suspect to put his hand behind his back while pressing his body to the ground. At several points, the suspect indicates that he’s trying to put his hand behind his back. It isn’t until 8:06 in the video that one of the officers tells the others to let the suspect up enough to get his hand behind his back,” he said. “[I]n use-of-force situations, officers have to be aware of how their own actions can prevent a suspect from following commands. Otherwise, officers may perceive the failure to follow commands as resistance and continue using force, even though the suspect may be trying to comply.”

It’s not unusual for officers to use threats of deadly force if they have reason to believe that a suspect has a weapon, Stoughton added. “What’s not clear to me here is whether officers had any specific reason to believe that the suspect had or was reaching for a weapon,” he said. “Many officers today are trained to treat a suspect as if he is armed unless and until the officer knows for sure that the suspect isn’t armed, but that can be problematic from both a legal and a policy perspective. Just because a suspect is pulling his hands in and trying not to be handcuffed does not necessarily mean that he has a weapon.”

The Town of Davidson has not yet commented on the incident.

Dunham is currently listed as a Patrol Corporal on the Town of Davidson’s website. According to Davidson town newsletters, Dunham previously worked for the town from 2005 to 2008, when he left to work for CMPD’s metro division. Prior to his 2005 hire with the town, he was a paramedic for 14 years, a 2005 newsletter stated when announcing his original hiring.

“He decided to return to the Davidson Police Department in May 2016 because he missed community-based policing,” the 2016 newsletter said. Soon thereafter, in October 2016, he was promoted to the rank of corporal.

Body cameras have been standard issue for Davidson’s police department since September 2014, when they became the first police force in Mecklenburg County to use them.
This is a developing story and will be updated.

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