7-minute read + 13-minute video
Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor released a video Friday that he said exonerates two LPD officers and proves a 16-year-old teen escalated a situation and resisted arrest; the Memorial Day incident occurred at a swimming pool at which the teen and four friends were trespassing and asked to leave.
Video sparked outrage: A 29-second cellphone video of the incident was posted to social media in May, sparking outrage because of the age of the teen, Jahmal Hudson, and prompting an FBI civil rights investigation.
Taylor also announced that the two officers involved — Christopher McKee and Jose Diaz-Acosta — have been cleared of wrongdoing and “found to be within policies and training guidelines” by a three-month long internal affairs investigation.
“The protective actions taken by the officers was found to be within our agency’s policies and follows the textbook training guidelines set forth by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement standards and trainings commission and federal agencies,” Taylor said. “You may not agree with what an officer is telling you, but you are required to follow the lawful orders.”
LPD’s narrated video: Taylor narrated the pre-produced video, which included body camera footage from both officers, security camera video from The Carolina Luxury Apartments’ clubhouse and the cellphone video.
The video posted to social media on May 27 showed only 29 seconds of the incident and began when officers were trying to place Hudson under arrest. It did not show what led to the arrest.
In Friday’s LPD video, Taylor explained to viewers what was happening at each moment and why his two officers were making the decisions they did at various points during the confrontation.
How it started: A woman who lived at The Carolina Luxury Apartments called police just after 5 p.m. to complain that teenagers in the apartment complex’s small pool were cursing and being rowdy in front of her children. When she asked them to stop, they began cursing at her, she said.
What the narrated video shows
The two officers who responded spent 15 minutes standing at the edge of the pool, trying to question the group of five trespassers in the pool. Taylor said they were asked at least five times to get out of the pool and leave. None would give their identity and one female gave a false identity. She was given a trespass warning, but said she was simply going to come back after the officers left.
Trespassing: It was later determined that none of the group lived at The Carolina, none were guests of anyone there, and none had a right to be in the pool despite what some said on social media at the time.
The incident was almost over as the group gathered up their belongings from within a screened-in porch area and headed toward the front door. But Hudson turned around to get something else. One female also went back inside the clubhouse.
Confrontation: Video shows that’s when Hudson spotted the original caller and began making inappropriate statements, shaking his head and making gestures.
Seeing this escalation, McKee leaned into Hudson’s view in an attempt to get Hudson to look at him and not the caller. Hudson responded by putting his hand up over the facial area of the officer and stated, “I don’t have to talk to you.”
Hudson then walked past McKee and to the caller, continuing to make disparaging comments to her, including calling her a “white Karen,” continuing to curse at her and asking, “Do you have something to say to me?!”
Taylor explained that Hudson is 6″1′ and weighs 374 pounds – outweighing McKee, Diaz-Acosta and the caller by 200 pounds. Taylor said the officers also did not know that Hudson was only 16 years old, adding that the age didn’t matter due to his size and behavior. The chief pointed out that a 13-year-old shot one of his officers last year and an 18-year-old shot at two detectives last week.
Taylor said when Hudson approached the caller and threatened her, the caller became “intimidated and fearful for her safety” so McKee “was obligated to step in for the safety of the caller” and told Hudson one last time to leave or he would arrest him.
“The officer cannot ignore a threat,” Taylor said. “He has a duty to react and intercede when he perceives a threat of danger.”
The arrest: Hudson can be seen slapping the officer’s hand and McKee told him he was arresting him.
McKee grabbed Hudson’s right arm and attempted to place him in custody. Hudson actively resisted by snatching his arm from McKee’s grip.
McKee then attempted “a soft, empty-hand control technique” by grabbing Hudson’s left arm, attempting to put his hand behind his back, and pushing Hudson toward the wall to gain control. Hudson continued to actively and physically resist by attempting to pull his arm from McKee’s grasp, and he began flailing his arms toward him.
Diaz-Acosta immediately attempted to “drive-stun” Hudson by placing his taser against Hudson’s body and pulling the trigger, which should have released a charge, but not deploy the hooks. Due to the struggle, Diaz-Acosta was unable to effectively discharge the taser and, therefore, it had no effect on Hudson.
The two officers continued to grapple with Hudson, standing on a floor that was wet from pool water and from Hudson’s spilled drink, which made controlling Hudson difficult.
McKee attempted again to turn Hudson to face the wall with an arm manipulation technique that was unsuccessful. Hudson braced and tensed his body and refused repeated commands to put his hands behind his back.
Hudson flailed his arms and hit McKee in the face, then grabbed at the officer’s police radio.
McKee continued to struggle with Hudson, who continued to actively resist. Taylor said McKee made the decision to deliver “an empty hand strike” — a punch — to Hudson’s head. In return, Hudson yelled “He just f—ing punched me!” and grabbed McKee’s entire face.
Hudson then raised his arm again and struck McKee’s face, causing the bill of the officer’s hat to be pushed down into the officer’s face.
McKee punched Hudson again, which had no effect.
Hudson reached around the officer and attempted to grab onto McKee’s duty belt, which contains his gun, taser, pepper spray, flashlight and handcuffs.
Diaz-Acosta grabbed Hudson by the hair while also trying to watch the other four individuals crowded nearby, yelling and screaming at both officers.
McKee again tried an arm-bar manipulation to gain control of Hudson with no effect. Hudson grabbed McKee’s front pants pocket, pulling McKee toward him and shifting the officer’s body stance, all while continuing to hit at McKee.
McKee continued to give verbal commands for Hudson to put his hands behind his back, to which Hudson responds, “No, bitch!”
McKee punched Hudson again to force him to let go of his uniform. McKee took a step back to prepare his taser.
Hudson pulled back and assumed a fighting stance — both fists held up. Hudson yelled, “Let’s go!”
Diaz-Acosta then delivered a punch, which had no effect, as Hudson intentionally hit Diaz-Acosta with his right hand. Diaz-Acosta delivered another punch.
Tasered: McKee deployed his taser and Hudson fell to the floor, twitching from the shock to his nervous system.
“The subject finally began to comply, and all protective actions immediately ceased. Officers were able to then handcuff the subject and escort him to the patrol vehicle for transport,” Taylor said. “This incident did not need to happen, and this incident would not have happened had the subject simply complied with the officer’s lawful command.”
Police chief comments
Taylor said punching anyone who is not obeying a law enforcement command and who is actively resisting arrest is a “legitimate defensive tactic and that we get trained on in the police academy, and we train on it here.”
Police fights: He added that fights with suspects have always taken place, but now there is cellphone video, body camera video and security camera footage.
“You know, it’s one of those things that looks awful,” Taylor said. “There’s no such thing as a pretty fight … There’s no referee standing there. There’s nobody ringing a bell saying, ‘Okay, you guys go to your neutral corners.’ That is a street fight.”
Mother has no comment: Hudson’s mother, Ja’Tae Lewis, said she did not want to comment. She said her son is not back in school yet and that all of this has been “too much for him.”
Hudson had been charged with three counts that were later dropped:
- Trespassing and failing to leave a property upon an owner’s request, a misdemeanor.
- Battery on a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony.
- Resisting an officer with violence, a third-degree felony.
The State Attorney’s Office dropped all of those charges in June. Taylor said those decisions are made based on any how many times a juvenile has been arrested, their criminal history, and how many cases they have pending in the juvenile section. Hudson had no criminal history.
“Brian Haas, our state attorney, … certainly related to me that the officer certainly had the probable cause to make an arrest,” Taylor said.
Protest: Protestors gathered in front of LPD’s downtown headquarters in early June, calling for the arrest of the two officers and for Chief Taylor to resign. Both officers remain with the department.
The woman who called 9-1-1 received numerous death threats and had to leave her apartment, Taylor said.
FBI investigation: The FBI has interviewed everyone involved in this case after a civil rights complaint was made to their Tampa office. It is not known if they are pursuing charges.
Taylor said it can take years for the FBI to make a determination, adding that he is still waiting for the results of an investigation into the December 2022 arrest of Antwan Glover, which was also videotaped as he was beaten and tased while resisting arrest.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement cleared all four officers in that incident.
Charges of resisting arrest against Glover in that incident were dropped by the State Attorney’s Office, but two misdemeanor charges remain and a non-jury trial is scheduled for October.
Glover, who has prior convictions for dealing drugs, was arrested again last week. Friday’s press conference was the second time in as many weeks that Taylor showed police videos to explain that his officers acted appropriately. Body camera and dashboard camera footage from last week’s arrest shows Glover continuing to flee from police for several minutes and then resisting arrest for several more minutes.
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