Virginia police unsuccessfully attempted to delete evidence of their assault on an unarmed teenager during a traffic stop for a broken license plate light. Video of the incident, taken by the car's driver, was recovered despite police efforts.
In January, Courtney Griffith, 18, was pulled over in Virginia Beach, Virginia for the defective light. Soon after being pulled over, she activated a camera just behind the steering wheel on her vehicle's dashboard.
The officers then told her the vehicle smelled of marijuana and demanded Griffith and her two passengers exit the vehicle. According to Free Thought Project, four cop cars were present on the scene.
Griffith asked if she was being detained. The officers said she was and that all passengers must exit the vehicle. One passenger, Brandon, repeatedly insisted he would not leave the car, saying he was a minor and wanted his parents to be present.
After barking at Brandon to exit the vehicle, an officer shot Brandon in the eyes with pepper spray.
“I’m 17 years old, stop!” Brandon yelled.
Griffith seems to have exited the car at this point, eventually realizing that one of the officers had previously arrested her as a minor for marijuana possession.
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Police then shot Brandon with a Taser twice, demanding he exit the vehicle. Officers proceeded to beat and scream at Brandon. He was tased a total of four times, according to Free Thought Project.
Near the end of the video, an officer is seen approaching the camera. Griffith said she believes he is the one who attempted to delete her dashboard footage.
“They arrested me, never Mirandized me or Brandon, and they sent me off with a summons. When I went back to my car, my phone had been brought off the dashboard and was on the drivers seat. I asked the cops who deleted the video, after looking for it in my folder, and they all started laughing. It was sickening. I later found it in my recently deleted folder,” Griffith told The Free Thought Project.
Brandon is in prison and will remain there until July on charges of assault and battery against a police officer and resisting arrest.