SACRAMENTO — The man seen grabbed by the neck, pushed to the ground and punched repeatedly by a Sacramento Police officer is speaking out the day after his arrest.
Nandi Cain Jr., 24, told FOX40 he was walking home from work in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood when he was stopped by the officer Monday afternoon. The stop was over jaywalking, Cain and witnesses said.
Cain says he was nervous the whole time because he saw the officer kept his hand near his gun.
He told FOX40 the officer ordered him to take his hands out of pockets. Police say Cain took off his jacket and challenged the officer to a fight, but Cain says he only took off his jacket to show he was not carrying any weapons.
Cain added he clearly didn’t fight back when the officer initially took him down.
“When he started pushing up on me like that, I’m like, ‘I’m not going to give this man any reason to kill me, to gun me down,'” Cain told FOX40. “I could’ve tried to fight back but that’s when guns would’ve been pulled out and I would’ve gotten shot. I would’ve been dead.”
The Sacramento Police Department issued a statement Tuesday morning, calling the officer’s behavior in the video “unacceptable conduct by a police officer.” Now, internal investigations are reviewing what exactly happened Monday during the arrest.
“I can tell you the actions of this officer does not represent the men and women of this police department,” Sacramento Police Sergeant Bryce Heinlein said. “I can tell you the video speaks for itself and you know obviously we taking this seriously.”
Police did not release the name of the officer involved in the incident, but said he has been on the force for two years. The police department was expected to release dash-cam video of the incident later Tuesday.
The Sacramento chapter of Black Lives Matter announced plans to protest the video outside a Sacramento Police station on Marysville Boulevard.
