TULSA, Okla. — 2 News obtained body and dash cam footage of an April jaywalking arrest where the suspect was injured when a Tulsa police officer forgot to put his patrol car in park.
The video is hard to watch, and we are not showing all of it, but we took several concerns to the Tulsa Police Department for answers.
Here's what we are showing:
The video begins when a backup officer shows up at the QuikTrip parking lot near 11th and S. Garnett after learning a jaywalking suspect, Kemonte Hampton, fled from police.
“He takes off running, goes around and through the hotel, then comes back to the QT side where they take him into custody,” said Captain Richard Meulenberg.
The body and dash cam video we received did not include the moments he fled because it was another officer’s body camera footage, but we plan to request that as well.
As Hampton begins to kneel in the QT parking lot, a second officer comes up from behind him and shoves him to the ground.
While the officers try to get Hampton in handcuffs, the officers do not realize one of the officers did not put his patrol car in park. In reverse, the car goes right over Hampton. 2 News is not showing the impact.
Officers pull him out from underneath the car and cuff him, while Hampton is crying and repeating, “Y’all just ran me over, bro.”
Multiple officers are on scene and very few words are spoken to Hampton. We were told immediately after the incident in April that Hampton’s injuries were minor.
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We were also told that an officer had minor injuries, but from the video, it appears to be a few scratches on the arms.
Paramedics took Hampton to the hospital. Specifics on his injuries are still unclear.
Meulenberg says that, due to recent increased violent crime in that neighborhood, there was an increased police presence. While jaywalking is a minor violation, Meulenberg says it can be used as probable cause to talk with someone further.
“Is it a minor infraction? Yes, absolutely. But it comes on the demands of the community saying, ‘hey, we have these major crimes out here, do something,’” said Meulenberg. “Leading up to [the incident], for months we had hundreds of calls to that area.”
Meulenberg says Hampton running from officers escalated the situation. We also asked about policies around handcuffing injured suspects.
“If EMSA asks us to uncuff them, we do it all the time,” he said. “We will defer to the medical experts on the scene.”
We also asked about the officer shoving Hampton and whether he believed any officers used excessive force.
“For me to say, is it excessive or not, I’d be remiss because I’m not on that board,” he said. “I’d hate to take one snippet and make a judgment call when we have so many angles overall.”
Meulenberg says the officer, who failed to park the car, is scheduled to come under review sometime in June.
Hampton is scheduled for a court hearing on June 12. He has been charged with jaywalking, resisting arrest, and obstructing justice.
Other than a recent theft of a jacket from a Target store in 2024, 2 News could not find a criminal history on Hampton.
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