Sarasota cop on leave after video surfaces of him holding man’s neck and head down with knee
A Sarasota police officer has been placed on leave after a disturbing video posted on Facebook caught him holding a suspect down with a knee on the suspect’s neck and head.
Although the video surfaced on Monday, the arrest took place one week before George Floyd was killed when a Minneapolis police officer held his knee down on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
“Chief (Bernadette) DiPino was disturbed to see an Officer kneeling on the head and neck of an individual in the video,” said a statement from the department. “While it appears the Officer eventually moves his leg to the individual’s back, this tactic is not taught, used or advocated by our agency.”
According to police, Patrick Qwashawn Carroll did not require medical attention before being booked into the Sarasota County jail on charges of domestic battery, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon and resisting arrest.
After seeing numerous videos of the incident, the first of which the department was tagged in on Facebook, DiPino placed officer Drusso Martinez on administrative leave and launched an internal affairs investigation.
Martinez, who joined the department in September 2016, described the knee to the neck and head in an incident report saying, “Minor force was used to escort the subject to the ground and secure him long enough for him to calm down.”
There were two other police officers, Amelia Wicinski and Cody Stanaland, present during incident. Neither made any attempts to stop Martinez from holding Carroll down with his knee. Wicinski and Stanaland, who both joined the department in June 2019, have been placed on desk duty during the investigation, according to department spokeswoman Genevieve Judge.
According to the arrest report penned by Martinez, he and Wicinski responded to Carroll’s girlfriend’s home after she called 911 and reported that he had punched her during an argument.
After interviewing them both, Martinez determined there was probable cause for a domestic battery charge and Carroll was handcuffed. According to his report, Carroll was cooperative at first but later began resisting when they tried to move him towards the patrol car, calling for his cousin to take his backpack.
Video footage from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, released by the police department, shows Martinez and Wicinski dropping Carroll to the ground, as Stanaland ran up. Martinez held Carroll down for almost three minutes, before he was lifted up and placed in the back of a patrol car.
Police ask anyone with any information or additional videos capturing the incident to contact the Sarasota Police Department Internal Affairs Division at 941-263-6027, Chief DiPino at 941-263-6012 or Heather Robison, administrator for the City of Sarasota Police Advisory Panels, at 941–263-6322.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 3:38 PM.