Police body camera footage shows police taking down John Sexton as he was on an early morning walk with his son in Oklahoma (KOCO/YouTube).
An Oklahoma man who says he was out for a routine early morning walk with his 6-year-old son claims his rights were violated after an officer can be seen in dramatic police body camera footage slamming him to the ground and briefly detaining him as the boy can be heard screaming nearby.
John Sexton said two police officers stopped him before 6 a.m. on July 4 in Watonga, about 70 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.
Video obtained by local ABC affiliate KOCO captured the moments after an officer approaches.
“I found it a little bit suspicious, you know? Just walking around,” the officer tells Saxton.
“Walking around is suspicious?” Saxton replies.
“I mean, technically, not really, but I mean, it is pretty early in the morning,” the officer says.
“You’ve been walking around down here at 5:30 in the morning,” another officer is heard saying.
“Yeah, we do that,” Sexton tells the officer.
“No, you’re not. Give me your ID,” the officer replies.
“I’m going to take you to jail for failure to identify,” the officer is later heard saying before repeating his demand that Sexton provide identification.
“I don’t have my ID on me because it is at the house,” Sexton tells the officer.
The footage then shows Sexton saying “I want this on video” before he is taken down by an officer.
Sexton’s son can be heard screaming and crying as his father is handcuffed, the bodycam footage shows.
In the police car, an officer can be heard saying, “Shut up and listen just a minute. We had reasonable enough suspicion to identify you.”
When Sexton asked what he was being detained for, the officer responds, “We don’t know what’s going on but we can call it criminal activity.”
Sexton is seen in the video being released, walking back to where his son was standing.
Sexton has since filed a complaint against the officers, local CBS affiliate KWTV reported.
Sexton told KOCO his son, who has autism, wanted to be a cop once, but not anymore.
“I mean, it’s horrible to see my son act, you know, crying like that and then just having my rights violated like that,” he told the station.
“He’s been a cop for Halloween for the last two years,” Sexton also said. “That’s what he’s been wanting to be when he grows up. That’s what he says, and now he’s scared of them.”
The police department referred a call from Law&Crime to the City Manager’s Office, which did not immediately respond to a message requesting comment.
In a statement, the city said the chief requested the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) probe the matter as an “impartial investigative unit” on July 9.
“This independent investigation will allow for a fair and objective assessment of the situation,” said the statement from Watonga City Manager Karrie Beth Little. “As part of our commitment to integrity, we take any allegations seriously and are committed to transparency and accountability in our operations.”
The OSBI said it has handed over its case to the Blaine County District Attorney’s Office this week. The DA’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime.
The video, meanwhile, has prompted Blaine County Sheriff Travis Daugherty to call for the officers involved to be put on leave.
“I feel the best course of action now is to remove these officers from the equation until the district attorney’s office and city leaders decide the best outcome will be. I will now be involved because the citizens are not having their voices heard and we are getting continual threats,” he said in a letter on Facebook.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
