It's a shame to get to this so late in the day, but this is pretty startling video of Ryan Moats' unfortunate run-in with the Dallas police department while rushing to his mother-in-law's bedside.
And now, according to the Dallas Morning News' Crime Blog, the officer who pulled him over, Robert Powell, is being investigated for possibly tampering with a police report.
Powell told the other officer he was in a chase after a traffic stop in January. He said the motorist pulled away and drove toward him while fleeing.
Under a strict pursuit policy, Dallas officers may only chase those suspected of a violent felony. Often in a post-chase report, it is an officer's own perception of being assaulted in some way that provides justification.
"I worded it that I was in fear of being run over; the chase was on," Powell told the other officer.
Chief David Kunkle had this to say at the news conference today:
"It appears, what he said, to have been contrary to our pursuit policy, to where he may have lied about the circumstances under which the pursuit began. So that is something else we are going to investigate."
And as you see in the video, it's pretty obvious that the officer isn't going to listen to any of Moats' pleas for some leniency over a minor traffic offense. It's actually impressive how composed and cooperative the Texans' running back was considering the circumstances and how callous Powel was being during the "investigation." I understand cops are under a lot of pressure and have to take precautionary measures at all times , but Officer Powell's human instinct should have kicked in at some point — at least enough to know that a silly moving violation ticket could have waited or even waived. This incident — on top of the thing that happened in January — should give the Dallas police department enough evidence that Powell's probably not the type of guy they want working for them anymore.
Here's the second part of the video:
Officer who detained Moats shouldn't see the streets again [Shutdown Corner]
Disturbing Video Of Moats' Run-in With Police [The Sporting Blog]
Dallas officer who stopped NFL Player Ryan Moats being investigated for comments caught on tape [Crime Blog]