Facebook / Via blogs.citypages.com
Lollie filmed the incident, which rapidly escalated as he repeatedly claimed, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” The officers, a man and a woman, tell Lollie he is going to jail, but never say what he has done wrong, or what he will be charged with.
“The problem is I’m black,” Lollie tells one of the officers. “It really is. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Though the last half of the video is dark due to Lollie dropping the phone, you can hear him screaming, “Those are my kids right there!” The male police officer then uses his taser on Lollie, and there is a sound like children screaming in the background.
“This is assault,” he says.
The incident took place in January, but law enforcement reportedly held onto Lollie’s phone until the charges were dropped in July, meaning he couldn’t upload the video he had taken until recently.
Before the charges were dropped, Lollie had been charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, and obstructing the legal process.
The St. Paul Police Department took to Facebook to defend their officers, saying that Lollie had trespassed on private property and had refused to leave an “employees only” area.
The Minnesota resident spoke to Minneapolis City Pages and described his version of the incident:
However, when the police did arrive they sided with security and went on to arrest Lollie.
The charges were eventually dropped in July because other witnesses corroborated his description of the events. One of his daughter’s teachers happened to witness the incident, and confirmed his report. Another woman who saw the arrest said that she works nearby and often sits near the First National Bank Building to eat lunch, but has never been arrested or bothered by security guards or police.
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