Milwaukee Bucks guard Sterling Brown had a Taser used on him by police back in January after he was questioned about a parking violation, and the rookie is now filing a lawsuit over the incident.
Brown’s attorney Mark Thomsen said Tuesday that Brown is filing a civil rights lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department after officers used a stun gun on the 22-year-old in a Walgreens parking lot on Jan. 26. Police reports state that officers were doing a business check when they saw a car parked across two handicap spaces, and they confronted Brown over it. Thomsen says body camera footage from the incident is set to be released on Wednesday, and sources who viewed the footage told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that there was no sign of Brown doing anything to provoke police.
“He isn’t combative, isn’t threatening,” one person who viewed the footage said. “Very bad.”
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett also saw the footage, and he described the officers’ actions as “disturbing.”
“It was a disturbing video when I saw it, and I know that the police chief feels the same way,” Barrett said. “And I don’t know exactly what actions his department is going to take, but it is disconcerting to see some of the actions in that video.”
Brown was arrested on a possible misdemeanor charge of resisting or obstructing an officer, but police decided not to refer the case to prosecutors. Brown was issued a citation for a parking violation, and he had bruises on his face when playing in a game later that day. He only told reporters that he had dealt with a “personal issue.”
Brown is not the first pro athlete to file a civil rights lawsuit against the police in the past several months, as NFL star Michael Bennett had a similar situation last September. Internal investigators with the Milwaukee police said they had not recommended criminal charges against the officers involved in the incident with Brown as of Tuesday.
