Now, we’re getting a look at body cam video of what happened that day.
The video above is one of multiple videos related to the arrest that the City of Alameda has put out.
It happened on May 23rd in Alameda. You can see the body camera pointed at Mali Watkins.
Police say they got a call from a woman who said, “An African-American man is dancing in the street and clearly something is wrong with him.”
At the start of this video you can see Watkins standing next to a sidewalk in what looks like a parking lane. The officers ask him what he’s doing and why he’s not on the sidewalk. He tells them he was dancing as a form of exercise and does this regularly.
A little more than a minute in, Watkins starts walking away, that’s when police grab his wrists and say he’s not free to go.
The situation escalates and the officers pull Watkins towards a car while he explains what he was doing, repeatedly tells them to listen, and asks a woman nearby to record.
The officers tell him he’ll be arrested if he resists and that’s exactly what happened. A city spokesperson says he was cited for resisting arrest.
The incident was condemned by the city manager and the vice mayor and the police chief asked for an independent investigation into how the officers acted.
No word though on whether or not the officers were punished or put on leave.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.