A Northwestern University doctoral candidate was violently arrested after being accused of stealing his own car. The dash cam footage, which was recorded in Oct. 2015 but released by police in Evanston, Ill. on Wednesday (Jan. 11), shows Lawrence Crosby getting swarmed and attacked by a handful of cops.
The 25-year-old grad student had been working on his car prior to the incident, when a woman spotted him and called 911 to report seeing a black man stealing a car. She also followed Crosby, giving his location and a description of the car.
Crosby noticed that someone was following him and was headed to a police station.
In the video, police pull Crosby over in a church parking lot. He can be seen stepping out of the vehicle with his hands raised, as officers yell for him to get on the ground.
Crosby, who had a cell phone in one hand, is kneed and punched and dragged to the ground. Officers continue to subdue Crosby, grabbing at his limbs and yelling for him to “stop resisting.”
Crosby can be heard saying that he’s not resisting as an officer warns him that he’s being recorded.
“I understand being a police officer is a tough job, but we need them to exercise judgment in their day to day operations,” said Evanston Alderman Brian Miller, who is running for mayor. “Within 10 seconds of Mr. Crosby getting out of his car with his hands in the air, he was tackled, he was kneed while he was standing up, then he was punched repeatedly by multiple officers, for allegedly stealing his own car. Our police officers need to be better than that.”
Crosby had his own dash cam recording the incident, and has since filed a lawsuit against the city of Evanston as well as four officers.
Watch the footage below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Unk_-v2dU