Months after prosecutors had video of Independence cop punching man, review continues
More than three months after Jackson County prosecutors said they would review video that showed an Independence police officer punching a man during an arrest, the prosecutor’s office has not announced its findings.
Earlier this year, the City of Independence paid more than $80,000 to settle a claim filed by the man.
The prosecutor’s office conducted an initial review of footage and reached out to the Independence Police Department for more information, according to Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. The office has been waiting on that information, he said.
When the information is received, Mansur said it will be taken to the prosecutor’s use of force committee for further review.
However the Independence Police Department was unaware there was an ongoing investigation into the case and that the prosecutor was still waiting on information, according to Officer Jack Taylor, a spokesman for the department. The deputy chief will contact the prosecutor’s office to find out what information they were waiting on, he said Thursday.
The Star reported on the incident in July, after receiving a surveillance video through a public records request.
The video shows a man entering the Price Chopper store at 4201 South Noland Road on Feb. 1, 2020. He told the manager someone was trying to kill him. The manager called police to report the disturbance. Two officers responded and the man exited the store.
One officer, David Wehlermann, struck the man twice while arresting him outside the store. The first hit was to the chest and the next to the face.
As officers put the man in the back of the police vehicle he can be heard saying: “Don’t touch me,” according to audio of the incident.
Officers told the man he was under arrest for interfering with police, which the man denied.
He yelled for help, saying that he could not breathe. But the officer told him to stop resisting: “You’re talking, you’re breathing.”
Video surveillance of the incident showed the man repeatedly asking the officer not to hurt him, as the officer reached into the back of the squad car to buckle his seat belt. The man can be heard speaking to himself about the incident, as the officer closed the door to the car.
“You see that, right?” he said. “Oh my god. Please don’t hurt me. Oh my god. He f------ me up.”
At one point, the officer told the man he needed “psychiatric help.”
““No one’s looking for you,” the officer said. “No one cares.”
The man, who is Black, later said he thought police were trying to kill him. The Star did not name him because he was allegedly the victim of police brutality and experiencing a mental health crisis at the time.
Officer Wehlermann, who struck the man, made no mention of the incident in his police report. He wrote that the man refused to follow commands, leading Wehlermann to “grasp” his arm and “escort him to the ground.”
The man was cited and taken to jail for interference.
On Jan. 14, 2021, the city paid him $82,500 in a settlement. The city denied fault as part of the agreed upon settlement.
Prosecutors in early August said they planned to review the incident.
The prosecutor’s office said this week that they did not know how long the use of force committee’s review would take.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 12:52 PM.
