WESTLAND, Mich. – After a viral video showed Westland police using a Taser on a man holding a baby, another Westland man has come forward with a similar story.
Jerry Shingles said Westland police officers showed up at his home in the middle of the night and used a Taser on him.
When Shingles saw video of Raymurez Brown being hit with a Taser while holding a baby, he said it prompted him to turn off the television, pick up a phone and call the lawyer handling the case.
Shingles said he fell asleep one night in June with his 5-year-old daughter Ameera while watching a Frozen DVD. He said Westland police came to the home looking for his father.
"It was 2:30 in the morning and they were banging on my door," Shingles said.
Shingles his father had a drug problem and had been stealing from him, so he had kicked him out of the house.
"I put him out, changed the locks," Shingles said.
Dashcam video from the patrol car only shows a portion of the porch, but it captured all the audio from the exchange.
Shingles answered their questions and gave them a phone number.
"He's cooperative," his lawyer said. "He gives them everything they want."
But when police asked to go inside his house without a warrant, Shingles declined.
"They asked if they could come in, and I was, like, 'It's late. I'd rather not,'" Shingles said.
Police asked Shingles if he had any warrants and he said he has bench warrants for outstanding misdemeanor traffic tickets. They told him he was under arrest even though he doesn't have a criminal history.
Dashcam video shows very little of the scene because of the way the patrol car was positioned, but the back and forth between Shingles and the officers is audible.
When they moved to arrest him, someone says, "Stop resisting." Shingles said he wasn't resisting and was already in handcuffs when a Taser was used to haul him off the porch. He was taken to jail.
Singles said he wasn't resisting arrest.
Westland police Chief Jeff Jedrusik declined an on-camera interview, but he told Local 4 that Shingles never filed a complaint about the exchange. Jedrusik said Local 4's call was the first he had heard about the issue.
Shingles said he was offered a deal in which all charges against him, such as resisting arrest, would be dropped if he signed an agreement not to sue the Westland Police Department.
He said he declined the deal and called attorney Greg Rohl, who is handling his case.
Westland police are reviewing the tape from the incident.