David Washington, a Black man from Fredericksburg, Virginia, was driving down the road when he suffered an apparent stroke. It led to him crashing into the car in front of him and also into a street sign. Instead of offering medical assistance to the unresponsive man, officers did what they thought was prudent in any medical emergency- they assumed a Black man was resisting arrest. To make matters worse, they proceeded to taser Washington. When he didn’t respond to the electrical jolt as he should have, they decided to pepper spray him. No, not a quick shot of pepper spray, but nearly eight seconds of pepper spray directly on Washington’s face. The pepper spray made Washington move slightly, and cops forced him out of his driver’s seat to the ground. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they then allowed his car to run over his foot as they were attempting to handcuff the man who offered absolutely no resistance and was attempting to tell them he was distressed because of his stroke and needing medical assistance.
The officer in the video who tased and pepper-sprayed the victim has since resigned, and the department admitted they used excessive force. The officer from the video says as Washington struggles “get out of the car or I’m going to fucking smoke you! Get out of the car.” As they arrest Washington, you can hear a female officer screaming to stop the car before it runs over the victim. What kind of a world do we live in when police aren’t assisting individuals with medical emergencies? Refusing to offer medical assistance? What’s even worse? They are still going to charge Washington with reckless driving, hit-and-run, and property damage among others, despite medical personnel who arrived at the scene stating the Washington was suffering a medical emergency that had started earlier that day.
Watch the 7-minute body-cam video for yourself and see if you think Washington was “resisting arrest:”
