A Philadelphia police officer is reportedly facing a lawsuit from a suspect after allegedly deleting a cell phone video from his phone of the arrest.
TMZ reports the incident occurred back March when Jacob Giddings was apprehended after officers ran his truck’s plates and discovered an active warrant for his arrest for an assault charge. According to the police report, Officer Burnett asked Giddings to step out of his vehicle, but he reportedly “started to resist.”
During body camera footage obtained by TMZ, Giddings can be seen holding his phone up to the police officers and telling them that he is recording the incident. Burnett then forcibly removes Giddings from the car, during which the phone is dropped and a struggle can be heard.
Later, Burnett picked up the phone and appeared to gain access to the footage, though it’s not clear from the footage what he did. From the patrol vehicle’s backseat, Giddings was heard asking Burnett if the video was still on his phone. The cop responded saying he didn’t know, but the suspect believes he deleted the footage.
Giddings is now filing a lawsuit against the Philadelphia Police Department for excessive force and assault, tampering with evidence, false arrest, and malicious prosecution.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement that they are investigating the accusations against Burnett, but no disciplinary action has been taken at this time.
“This incident is currently under investigation with our Internal Affairs Bureau,” the department told TMZ. “The officer involved has been placed on administrative duty status pending the outcome of the internal investigation.”
Check out the video via TMZ below.
