Hopkinsville, Kentucky — (Scroll Down For Video) — A man wanted on a warrant in Tennessee for assault with a gun was arrested following a disturbance Monday afternoon.
Police released the following timeline:
1344 officers are called to 100 block of big blue court for a disturbance where the suspect is making threats to the caller.
1346/1347 traffic stop was made on the vehicle the suspect left in. Over about the next 9 minutes officers talk to the suspect, now known to be Mr. Gaines about the disturbance on big blue court.
1357 Officers are advised that the suspect, Anthony Gaines has an active felony warrant out of Tennessee for Aggravated assault with a gun.
1358 Officers place Mr. Gaines in handcuffs in order to arrest him for
the active warrant.
1400 before placing Mr. Gains into the police car officers locate what appears to be methamphetamine, at which time Mr. Gaines pulls away from the officer and takes off running through the parking lot for about 100 yards before he trips and falls on his own causing the pursing officer to also fall to the ground.
1401-1409 Mr. Gaines continues to resist arrest not allowing officers to place him in the back of the patrol car. Gaines is seen on Body camera wedging himself in the back door area preventing officers from getting him in the car, Gaines can be seen pushing off of the cruiser with his feet to be kept from being placed inside. At one time officers almost have Mr. Gains all the way into the car when he pushes himself completely out of the car landing on the ground before officers can close the doors.
1405 officers again try and lift Mr. Gains off the ground to place him in the back of the police car at which time Mr. Gains bites one of the officers on the inside of his upper leg.
1406 Officers again continue to try and get Mr. Gains into the back of the cruiser. Mr. Gaines again has himself wedged in the door frame of the police car one of the officer’s delivers knee strike to the large portion of the his leg in an attempt to cause Mr. Gaines to buckle in hopes to get him into the back of the car. Mr. Gaines remains wedged and continues to cuss the officers as well as making a comment to them that “I guess black lives don’t matter” while continuing to resist arrest.
During all of this Mr. Gains yells officer are chocking him although on the officers body camera you can see where the officer is simply pushing on the side of Mr. Gains face and neck still attempting to place him into the police car, never grabbing him around the throat.
1409 Officers call for an ambulance because Mr. Gains says he has a pacemaker and that he needs fluids and that something isn’t right.
1415 A citizen arrives on scene stating she is Mr. Gain’s aunt. Officers allow her to speak with Mr. Gains in an attempt to convince him to get into the police car.
1417 ambulance arrives and takes Mr. Gains to the hospital to assure he is healthy enough to be taking to jail.
After seeing the video circulating of the arrest on social media along with many of the comments. As well as understanding the tone of the country as it relates to law enforcement and arrest. I wanted to be certain to get the factual information out as quick as possible. The fact in this incident is that the officers dealing with Mr. Gains, handled themselves professionally and followed the law, policy and procedures. This is NOT an example of something officers have done wrong.
As much as it is my responsibility to discipline officers when they do not follow policy or procedure. It is also my job to stand up for them when they have done nothing wrong. And that is the case with this encounter.
All officers, during this incident, had their body camera’s on. We placed the primary officers video on line because the data is so large and we had trouble getting just this one posted. As always open records laws allow for other videos to be obtained.
