Silent body camera footage released earlier this year showed a Florida police officer choking his female colleague after she pulled him away from a Black man’s arrest. Recently released audio shows what the cop had said to the suspect and what likely caused the junior officer to intervene, reports the Huffington Post.
Sunrise police were responding to a call about a man accused of attacking people outside a convenience store in November. Officers handcuffed a 25-year-old man and tried to get him into a police vehicle. Sgt. Christopher Pullease then arrived on the scene, taking an aggressive lead on the arrest and pointing a Mace canister at him while cursing at the man.
“Hey, hey, look at me. Look at me! You wanna f**king play f**king games? You’re playing with the wrong mother**ker,” Pullease tells the handcuffed man entering the police cruiser, according to the audio initially obtained by Miami TV station WSVN and published March 23.
“Do what you gotta do, man,” the suspect responds. “You gonna Mace me? Mace me.”
According to Pullease’s body camera footage, the sergeant then leans into the vehicle to get closer to the handcuffed man.
“Look at me, mother**ker. You wanna play f**king games? You wanna be disrespectful with my f**king officers?” Pullease shouts. “I will remove your f**king soul from your f**king body.”
It was at that point when the 28-year-old female officer intervenes by grabbing the back of Pullease’s belt to pull him out of the car, as shown in body camera footage belonging to another officer on the scene. The junior cop, who has about two years of experience on the force, appears to be trying to deescalate Pullease’s confrontation with the suspect.
The sergeant then turns around and grabs her by the throat, backing her up against a patrol car.
“What the f**k? Don’t ever f**king touch me again,” the sergeant screams at her. “Get the f**k off me.”
Pullease then tells the junior officer that he’ll “f**king see you in about five minutes.” The sergeant briefly goes to his police vehicle before coming back and demanding all officers on the scene “turn off their f**king cameras.” The footage ends at that point.
Sunrise police spokesperson Justin Yarborough told HuffPost on Monday that the department released the video with sound after WSVN-TV published its copy of the video.
Sunrise police suspended Pullease, who has been with the department for more than 21 years, in November with pay after launching an internal investigation into his behavior.
