WASHINGTON — Cellphone video that shows two D.C. police officers physically restraining a man has led to outrage on Twitter and a demonstration at the site where the altercation occurred.
The video shows the man, said to be Jason Goolsby, being forcibly handcuffed while crying out, “I’m not resisting.”
Online posts have identified Goolsby as a Howard University student, but university spokesman Anthony Owens said there’s no indication that Goolsby is a student there.
The video, which is cut short as an officer approaches and says, “back it up,” prompted a #justiceforjason hashtag online.
D.C. police say Goolsby was not arrested.
The person who tweeted the video wrote the two were “harassed and assaulted because ‘someone felt uncomfortable around us’ in a bank.”
In response, D.C. police said the initial call was for a suspicious person, that three subjects may be trying to rob people at the ATM. The location for the call was 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Southeast D.C.
“One individual fled on foot from the police, was chased, and then taken down,” a police statement said. “The individual resisted, and was handcuffed while resisting after he refused to stop.”
“The person making the video was interfering with police, and was also detained while the incident was investigated,” the statement continued. “Neither individual was arrested.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if the video will be reviewed to investigate the officer’s actions.
“We are reviewing the circumstances surrounding the stop to ensure that policies and procedures were followed,” police wrote in an email.
