WASHINGTON — It’s daylight and the video is clear.
Shot from the inside of a parked car, it shows a man, 36-year-old William Cunningham, standing with his hands at his sides.
Behind him, there’s a police officer, identified as Prince George’s County police officer Jenchesky Santiago.
The video shows an officer identified as Santiago with his weapon drawn, pointing directly at Cunningham. The two are standing, Santiago’s arm is fully extended and Cunningham is a few feet away. Then the officer comes closer to Cunningham, positioning himself so Cunningham is facing him. The video shows Santiago putting the gun first to Cunningham’s head, then to his mouth.
There was no audio when the cell phone video was shown to reporters, and from the video alone, it’s not clear what happened before Santiago is seen with his weapon drawn.
Friday, Prince George’s County’s State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks announced that Santiago had been indicted on assault charges. Prince George’s County Police held a news conference on Friday addressing the indictment and in a statement, Police Chief Mark Magaw said his office brought the case to the state’s attorney and that the incident was not “indicative of the high standards we expect of our officers.”
Santiago, a three-year veteran of the Prince George’s County Police force has been suspended without pay. Along with assault, he’s been charged with using a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence.
Atty for William Cunningham says policing has come a long way–but concerned re #Santiago case pic.twitter.com/M0qgFgSBRI
— Kate Ryan (@KateRyanWTOP) March 22, 2015
Sunday, Cunningham talked to reporters about the case.
“When the officer, you know, pulled his service revolver and put it against my head several times, I just you know, kind of felt like, you know, it was the end of my life,” Cunningham told reporters.
Cunningham’s wife, Shaketta, was inside their home with their two children when the incident took place last May.
“Naturally my first instinct was to run over to see what was going on.” she said. “The officer stated that if I was to come any closer then I would be arrested.”
She said she called 911 to get a supervisor saying she knew that Prince George’s County “does not, absolutely does not train their officers to act in that manner.”
Since the incident, Cunningham says he still doesn’t feel completely safe. His children were inside the family’s home when Santiago approached the car that Cunningham was in as it was parked outside their Bowie residence. He said he’s talked to his children, ages 8 and 11, about the situation.
He says he explained “every police officer — every person — is not the same,” and that “we should be able to trust the police officers,” but that they would have “to try to be as good as possible so stuff like this doesn’t happen.”
Cunningham says he used to have trust in police.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
