Kenosha Applebee's arrest; officers suspended, force deemed justified

KENOSHA, Wis. - The Kenosha Police Department released body camera footage on Nov. 17 showing what led up to this summer's viral arrest inside an Applebee's, as an outside agency's investigation found the officers were justified in using force. Two officers were still suspended for policy violations.

The video this summer gained national attention and headlines. It showed police officers pulling the man down. While he was facedown on the ground, with one officer directly on top of him, a second officer is seen repeatedly punching the man. 

Police suspected the man of a hit-and-run crash, but police were wrong in those suspicions and ended up arresting a different person suspected of the crash.

Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton summarized the matter in a video posted on YouTube, which the department called a "community debriefing." He said officers from the Kenosha Police Department were responding to a rollover crash and hit-and-run at the intersection of Highway 31 and Highway 50 on July 20. People in one of the cars ran from the scene. 

In the Kenosha Police Department's edited video summary, witnesses were heard describing the suspects. A caller to 911 dispatch said the suspects were "a black female and two black males and a baby, I think."

"It’s gonna be a female with a scarf and a bun on her head. She also has a baby with her," a dispatcher told officers.

Then, a witness, captured on an officer's body camera, said, "One was wearing red, I don’t remember which one. I think it was the woman."

Witnesses said the suspects ran away from the crash and towards nearby businesses.

Then, the department's video included sound from an Applebee's worker calling police. 

"I work at Applebee's and the cops just came and asked us if there was a man, woman and a baby. There was a table that was sitting that looked very nervous and as soon as the cops left, all of sudden they wanted their food to-go, and their checks immediately."

The video then showed police questioning this family. 

"So, where’s your car that you came in?" an officer asked.

In the video, the family didn't answer.

Then, an officer asked how long they had been at the restaurant. The man responded, "We’ve been here for an hour and 45 minutes." But, the manager then told the officer the family had only been there for roughly twenty minutes.

"This discrepancy prompted the officers to continue to question the couple," the chief explained in the video.

Then, the family got up, and things quickly escalated. 

The video included a sequence of yelling and swearing and officers trying to detain the man, who was holding the baby. Officers were heard ordering the man to put the baby down. Then, during a struggle, the baby was pulled from the man, and the yelling continued, with the man facedown on the ground, while officers above him yelled at him to put his hands behind his back.

The cell phone video that went viral this summer showed a police officer punching the man repeatedly. 

The West Allis Police Department investigated the use of force and found it was justified. Still, it said Officer Michael Vences should have re-evaluated continuing to hit the suspect and should have considered other options. The review also determined Vences failed to meet department standards when completing his report about the incident. 

This officer received a four-day suspension.

A second police officer pepper-sprayed the woman. The video showed the interaction between the two, with the officer ordering her to put her hands behind her back, and her responding that someone has her child. 

The West Allist investigation found Officer Luke Courtier's use of pepper spray was  justified, but the report found he didn't take the needed steps after the spray's use, which includes things like rinsing the person's face. The review also found he didn't meet the department's standards on other matters: communication, safe vehicle operation and writing of his report.

Courtier received a 10-day suspension. 

Kenosha police also announced that besides the suspensions, the two officers were receiving additional training to "correct the deficiencies that were identified" in this incident.

Jermelle English and Shanya Boyd, the two people in the video who were wrongly suspected of being involved in the hit-and-run, are both awaiting trials for resisting and disorderly conduct. Rapper Jay-Z's Team ROC is helping defend the man.

Kenosha police say they ended up arresting the person they suspected of the crash inside the same Applebee's.