A Texas city councilman was Tasered while on his knees and arrested outside his Prairie View home Thursday night and part of the incident was captured on camera.
The arrest involved an officer with the Prairie View police department, the same agency linked to the arrest of Sandra Bland.
Police said in a statement that officers had approached four men and questioned them about recent suspicious activity in the area. While police were questioning the men, city councilman Jonathan Miller, 26, interrupted the investigation.
WATCH ABOVE: Jonathan Miller, a city councilman in Prairie View City, Texas was tasered by police.
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Video of the incident shows a male and a female officer telling Miller repeatedly to put his hands behind his back. The video captured on a police body camera shows the councillor repeatedly telling the officers he lives at the address in question.
“Officer, please do not put your hands on me,” Miller told the male officer. “I live here.”
Police allege Miller refused to cooperate with officers, requiring him to be Tasered. While the camera footage doesn’t show him being Tasered the councilman can be heard crying out in pain and the sound of a stun gun being deployed.
Two witnesses to incident told an NBC affiliate they believe police used excessive force in the arrest.
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“As soon as they started pushing, I pulled out my camera, because if there’s a camera the officer can’t say my battery on my body cam went out or anything like that,” Brandon Woodson told KPRC-TV.
Woodson recorded part of the incident on his cellphone. The video clip shows a man appearing to be Miller being given commands by officers while on his knees and then falling forward after the Taser is deployed.
Miller was charged with interference and resisting arrest and booked at the Waller County jail.
The unidentified female officer in the video was also involved in the July arrest of Bland. She was found hanging in a Waller County jail cell three days after her arrest.
Bland was pulled over by a Texas state trooper for allegedly failing to use her turn signal and argued with the trooper over a cigarette.
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