ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A white Maryland police officer accused in a lawsuit of kneeling on a Black man’s neck during a traffic stop has been suspended from the department, officials said.
Anne Arundel County Police Detective Daniel Reynolds was suspended following the accusations that emerged in a lawsuit recently filed by Daniel Jarrells, County Executive Steuart Pittman said Wednesday night during a community forum on policing.
Jarrells’ complaint alleges he was pulled over and arrested in Gambrills without reason in February 2019. Officers later threw Jarrells to the ground, and one pinned his knee to Jarrells’ neck even when he yelled that he could not breathe, according to the lawsuit. The officers were not in uniform and were driving an unmarked car at the time, the lawsuit alleged.
One video captured by a bystander and obtained by news outlets also allegedly showed an officer bring Jarrells to the ground and put a knee to his neck area.
Major Katie Goodwin said the issue was not brought to the police department at the time and officials found out about the encounter after the lawsuit was filed, The Capital Gazette quoted Goodwin as saying.
Pittman said the department has since launched an internal investigation and a new policy on police use of such restraints would soon be announced, according to news outlets.
O’Brien Atkinson, president of the Fraternal Order of the Police Lodge 70, defended Reynolds’ actions and disputed that Reynolds knelt on Jarrells’ neck in an interview with The Capital Gazette on Wednesday, saying it appeared “the knee is on the shoulder.”
The death of George Floyd in May has brought renewed attention to the use of neck restraints by police. Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee against his neck for several minutes as Floyd lay face down on the ground.
Some departments have since amended their policies or banned the practice, and demonstrators have also called for a complete end to the maneuver during ongoing protests against racial injustice and police brutality.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.