It was a crisp fall day in Williams, a small city near Flagstaff, when police arrested a man named Brian Lopez for allegedly stealing a can of beer from a local gas station.
“I heard a noise that I’ve never heard before. The sound I heard was his cranium, his skull hitting the sidewalk,” said former Williams police officer Nicole White as she described what happened to the man.
White made the arrest in the middle of the afternoon on Oct. 20, 2022, not far from Historic Route 66 in downtown Williams, according to police records.
“The Circle K had decided that day that they wanted to press charges,” she said.
Incident captured on police body camera video
Officer White’s body camera video shows White approaching Brian Lopez, 49, who appears intoxicated, and a brief time later arrests him for theft and trespassing.
Lopez is handcuffed against a wall as White starts to search him for weapons. Lopez can be heard using profanities and appears belligerent, but White said she had him under control.
“It was a flash so quickly I don't even have time to react,” White said.
Less than a minute later, the body camera video shows Lieutenant John Romero’s hand appearing, unannounced, on Lopez's back and Romero takes him to the ground.
“Look to my left, and there's my lieutenant, Lieutenant Romero, and Brian is on the ground, not breathing,” White said.
Lopez was handcuffed and could not brace for his fall, causing his head to slam into the sidewalk, which required urgent medical attention, according to the police reports.
White can be heard on the body camera video, calling for an ambulance. She also reported to dispatch that Lopez had been taken down.
“I thought he had been killed at that moment,” White said. “There was no reason, in my opinion, for him to go to the ground with such force. He was already controlled.”
White and Romero are both seen on the video performing a sternum rub on Lopez, a technique used to test an unconscious person’s responsiveness. Lopez appeared to regain consciousness before paramedics arrived and took him by ambulance to the hospital.
“I would describe it as violent, unjustified, unnecessary … Brian didn't deserve that. I'm sorry,” White said while holding back tears in a later interview with ABC15. “It was a petty theft. Brian didn’t deserve that.”
Victim’s family questions use of force
ABC15 showed Lopez's family the police reports and body camera footage we obtained in the case for the first time.
“Definitely was not reasonable force there,” said Lopez's stepdad, Kelly Brockett, after viewing the body camera video. “He was being belligerent, but he was doing what he was told to do.”
Brockett said doctors diagnosed his stepson with schizophrenia many years ago. Like so many battling mental illness, Lopez has become a familiar face to local police, and this also wasn’t the first time officers have arrested him.
“He’s usually non-violent, never fights back,” Brockett said. “Tried to get him all kind of help and stuff.”
Brockett said they now question the use of force and were never made aware of the lieutenant’s actions on the body camera video.
“We were just told he was handcuffed and fell backward and hit his head,” Brockett said.
Officers went to family’s house night of the incident
Officer White and another detective are the ones who went to Lopez's parents' house the night he was injured, and their interaction was also captured on police body camera video.
“My lieutenant came on scene, um, and he was resisting a bit, and fell down and had an accident,” White can be heard telling Lopez's family on the video.
White said they were worried about Lopez and regrets not telling his family exactly what happened.
“To go in there and tell them, that Lieutenant did what he did out of anger. I can’t do that. That is a superior officer. But I would give anything to go tell them what really happened,” White said in a later interview with ABC15.
Officers say they reported the lieutenant’s actions
White said she immediately reported what she believed really happened and Lt. Romero’s use of force to her supervisor at the time, Sergeant Tracy Cooper.
“I believe Lieutenant Romero took a handcuffed subject and threw him to the ground, causing a major injury to a man,” said Cooper. “It was definitely inappropriate use of force.”
Cooper said she went directly to Williams Police Chief Tad Wygal about the actions of Lt. Romero, serious accusations against an executive officer at the small police agency.
“The next day, I spoke with my chief, and he said that it would be looked into,” Cooper said.
Police chief found actions of his lieutenant were not “unreasonable”
The ABC15 Investigators spent months reviewing records, video, and witness accounts of what happened that day.
Documents show Chief Wygal did investigate Romero’s actions and issued him a letter of reprimand a month after the incident.
According to internal records, Chief Wygal reviewed the reports, dash and body camera video and concluded Romero’s intervention was both reasonable and appropriate. However, the chief said because the injury would not have occurred without Romero’s intervention, he issued him a written reprimand which included a corrective action.
Those same police records showed the chief never interviewed, White, the arresting officer or any other witness before making his determination in the case.
Wygal ordered Romero to review the agency’s use of force policy, case law, and provide a presentation to the Williams Police Department, according to the letter.
“That’s very minimum to what took place,” said Brockett after learning about the corrective action.
Both Cooper and White said they were not aware of any investigation into Lt. Romero’s actions.
“I’m floored so you’re telling me that he had to review the use of force police. Received no discipline for his actions…” Cooper said after learning about the details of Romero’s written reprimand. “That is not how that should have been handled.”
Law enforcement expert also questions investigation
Jeff Kirkham has spent nearly four decades of experience in law enforcement. He was the former Nogales police chief, worked for AZPost, and spent time investigating police complaints at Apache Junction Police Department.
“You simply can’t look at a police report and look at a body camera and draw 100% conclusion,” Kirkham said.
ABC15 asked Kirkham to review the body camera video and reports we obtained in the case.
“I would say that the lieutenant overreacted in this case. The females had it in hand, and I think he stepped in,” he said.
Kirkham also said a proper use-of-force investigation should have included interviewing witnesses and especially the arresting officer, which records show no evidence took place in this case.
“I would say that was a failure of those agencies to thoroughly investigate,” Kirkham said.
Kirkham said the discipline in the case was also something worth looking closer at.
“His personnel file, look at whether prior incidents. Is this a single incident?” he said. “And oftentimes if the injury is so severe to somebody in a case like this, then most agencies go from a written reprimand all the way up to termination.”
Lieutenant claims victim’s jacket slipped
According to the police report, Lt. Romero justified his actions by saying Lopez was resisting arrest. For his officer’s safety, he decided to place him on the ground.
Romero claimed in his written report, “As I turned to Lopez to place him on the ground, I lost control of his body for his jacket slipped, causing him to strike the back of his head on the sidewalk causing injury.”
Kirkham said he didn’t see that in his review of the video.
“The video, and this one, showed the female was using verbal judo and doing quite well with that,” he said.
“To me, that is fiction,” said Brockett, Brian’s stepdad after reviewing the body camera video.
Williams PD Chief declines interview request
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ABC15 had questions for Chief Wygal about what happened and how the incident was handled. Wygal declined multiple requests for an on-camera interview.
Instead, he sent a statement, outlining the steps taken in the case, and included, “The AZPost Review determined that there was no misconduct, and the case was closed without action.”
AZPost only reviews an agency’s complaint process; it doesn’t investigate officer misconduct which is left up to each agency to do.
State agency gets involved in investigation
The police union that represents both officers sent a letter to AZPost asking for them to investigate after the union said it became aware of the Romero incident weeks after Chief Wygal made his own determination.
AZPost told ABC15 it asked Williams Police to conduct a full internal affairs investigation into the incident, which likely would have included interviews with the arresting officer and other witnesses. Williams PD didn’t do that. Instead, the chief sent it to Page Police asking that agency to conduct an independent investigation.
According to a letter sent to Chief Wygal, Page police also found Lieutenant Romero’s actions were appropriate but also based its review on what was provided by the department, “including the body camera video and the supplement report from the involved Lieutenant.”
Kirkham again questioned the investigation and why witnesses were not interviewed.
“Any investigation needs to cover all your bases, and if you don't do that, you're doing a disservice to not only the officers involved, but you're also doing a disservice to the agency to not have all the facts,” Kirkham said.
“A man got seriously hurt on my watch. And I don’t care who it is. Nobody gets hurt at the hand of an officer when it’s not warranted,” Cooper said.
Officers later terminated
Williams police placed White and Cooper on administrative leave less than two months after they raised these concerns, according to internal records. Both have since been terminated and have filed appeals in court claiming retaliation.
Have a tip for the ABC15 Investigators? Email Investigator Jennifer Kovaleski at jennifer.kovaleski@abc15.com.
