PHOENIX — A Phoenix man shot by a police officer in August 2018, is upset with the way he says officers and other emergency responders treated him as he nearly died.
Edward Brown, 36, was unarmed when a Phoenix police officer fired one round into his back after a brief foot chase. The bullet paralyzed Brown from the chest down.
Brown, his lawyers, and community activist Rev. Jarrett Maupin released Phoenix Police Department video and pictures Monday morning, saying they had recently received them as part of the Brown's criminal case.
In the police body-camera video, one police officer with a medic kit rushes to Brown's side and places a medical dressing on the bullet wound in his back. There is a large amount of blood on Brown's body, his shirt, and in a pool on the ground. Several officers surround him and examine him for injuries. However, they also leave him on the hot, August concrete for several minutes until he begs to be moved, then they roughly roll Brown into a more shaded area. The officers also swear at Brown and tell him to stop spitting up blood near the officers.
"The amount of pain that I was in during, even when the officer was tossing me around, they didn’t know how much pain I was going through," Brown said Monday.
Brown also said he begged for oxygen, but nearby paramedics stared at him and did not provide aid. Officers also kept Brown handcuffed until just before he was loaded into the ambulance.
"This was wrong," said Sandra Slaton, Brown's attorney. "You just don’t treat human beings like this. You don’t handcuff a person on the verge of death."
Rev. Jarrett Maupin questions why it took nearly a year for the video to be made public.
"It’s taking too long for the city to release these videos, and we all know why - because people are going to be mad as hell," Maupin said.
According to the police report, Officer Kenneth Silvia and his partner were responding to a suspicious persons call near 2200 W. Heatherbrae Drive. The officers said Brown ran away from them, and they chased him. Silvia said Brown stopped when he got to a tall fence that he could not climb. At that point, Silvia said he held Brown at gunpoint. Silvia said he fired because Brown rushed at him and grabbed at the officer's gun. Brown, however, was shot in the back, and his lawyers say other evidence contradicts the officer's story.
"It’s against the laws of physics," Slaton said, "Especially with no DNA or fingerprints on the gun."
Phoenix police declined to comment about the video or the case, citing pending litigation.
Brown was criminally charged with assaulting a police officer and marijuana possession. He is also suing the city, claiming civil rights violations, and unnecessary force.
