An unarmed Black delivery driver recorded himself being tased by a police officer during a traffic stop after demanding to speak with the officer’s supervisor and refusing to get out of his car.
DoorDash delivery driver Delane Gordon was on a delivery route on March 10 when an officer pulled him over for speeding in Collegedale, Tenn. Video of the incident shows Gordon asking an unidentified Collegedale Police Department officer to speak with his supervisor as the officer orders Gordon to step out of his vehicle and pointing his taser at him.
“Sir, I feel uncomfortable,” Gordon tells the officer. “Please get your supervisor.”
The officer tries to pull Gordon out of his vehicle, and then pulls out his taser and appears to use it on Gordon, who screams in agony.
“Please stop!” Gordon is heard telling the officer. “Please don’t hurt me. Why are you doing this?”
Gordon was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of justice, according to The Washington Post.
At a news conference on Friday, Gordon’s attorney Ryan Wheeler said he released the footage of his client’s arrest. He said the altercation between the two escalated too quickly, and that his client was focused on “dealing with these charges,” the Post reported.
“[Questioning a police officer] shouldn’t be met with an immediate escalation, shouldn’t be met with an officer interpreting that exchange as a challenge to his authority,” Wheeler said at the news conference.
Wheeler added that his client, who was unarmed during the incident, has no criminal record and wants to keep it that way.
The Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office has also requested that the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office investigate the incident, the Post reported.
In a statement, the Collegedale Police Department said they are aware of the incident and will fully cooperate with the sheriff’s probe, as well as conducting its own investigation.
“The Collegedale Police Department has launched its own administrative review of the traffic stop and will release the results of that internal affairs investigation once it has been completed,” the department said.