Traffic stop video goes viral; police say social media doesn't tell full story
CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT) - The Chesterfield County Police Department says it is aware of a video circulating on social media that shows "part of an incident" during a traffic stop on Hollow Wood Court on Tuesday.
In a tweet from Elkanah Odembo's account, his girlfriend writes: "A cop follows us into my boyfriends driveway and claims it is because we have a brake light out. The cop calls backup immediately. He proceeds to viciously pull him out of the car for absolutely no reason. I was forced to sit in the car until another cop came and detained me."
Col. Jeffrey Katz responded to the large social media response to the video in a tweet on Wednesday, saying that the viral tweet "falls short of telling the entire story. Facts matter."
Wednesday, Odembo's girlfiend spoke about what she called a "scary and frightening" encounter with a Chesterfield police officer. Elizabeth Smith filmed a minute-and-a-half of the traffic stop, and she feels the situation went too far.
"He's asking about the brake light, and next thing I know, he has his hand on Elly," she said. "After it was continuing to happen, I thought, 'okay, something bad is about to happen, and I need to record this.'"
Smith can be heard in the video telling the officer that she and Odembo were cooperating and asking why he was trying to detain him.
Smith says at one point, she was ordered not to get out of the car and was eventually detained. As the situation continued to escalate, Smith says Odembo was pulled out of the car, but he ran from the officer into a house.
"We're all in this together. They're supposed to be protecting us. Why was he so scared that he had to run? That's not normal," Smith said. "He was tazed two times inside the house, I saw five of them attacking him on the ground on the front porch."
Smith says Odembo was scared - the reason he ran from the officer.
"Innocent black people are being targeted and killed every single day. How would you not be scared?" she said. "We've seen so many stories time and time again, how many times does it have to happen?"
In a statement Wednesday, the police department issued a full statement of the incident:
The officer attempted to stop a vehicle in the area Hollow Wood Court. The vehicle pulled into a driveway in the 3400 block of Hollow Wood Court. As the officer approached the vehicle, the driver had the car door open to exit the vehicle. The officer asked the driver for his identification. The officer told the driver he had been stopped because a tail light was out on the vehicle, and the officer had received information that the occupants of the vehicle had been gesturing and yelling things at a school bus.
The driver did not have his ID, and the officer began to take his information (name, date of birth, etc.). The driver said he didn't see a problem and attempted to exit the vehicle, and the officer told him to stay in the vehicle. The driver continued to not cooperate with the officer, so the officer told the driver he was being detained and asked him to step out of the vehicle. The driver then refused to exit the vehicle. The officer repeatedly directed the driver to exit the vehicle and attempted to remove the driver from the vehicle; the driver resisted.
At one point, a passenger in the vehicle exited the car and the officer ordered her back into the vehicle. The driver then exited the vehicle as he was being pulled by the officer; he pushed past the officer and fled around and then into the residence. The officer pursued the driver. The officer caught up to the driver and the two engaged in a physical altercation as the driver resisted being taken into custody. Other officers arrived on scene to help take the driver into custody, and the driver continued to resist, at one point reentering the residence.
The driver was tased and taken into custody. He continued to passively resist as officers escorted him from the house. The officer who conducted the traffic stop received non-life threatening injuries during the altercation and was taken to an area hospital.
The driver, identified as Elkanah A. Odembo Jr., 19, was arrested and charged with assault on a law enforcement officer, three counts of obstruction of justice with force and defective equipment.
The Chesterfield Police Department says it is also reviewing body camera footage worn by the officer. That footage was reviewed by NBC12 and other media outlets Wednesday afternoon.
The four-and-a-half minute video shows the intense moments between the 19-year-old and the officer. In the video, Odembo is seen running from the officer towards his house, and at that point, the video ends.
"We recognize there are going to be people who are fearful when we stop them. I would say the best thing to do is be cooperative - this traffic stop would have and could have gone a very different way," explained Col. Katz.
Col. Katz says the response to the video on social media shows the empathy of the community who may have been concerned that Odembo was not treated fairly, but he says it is important to know all of the facts of a situation.
"My hope is that people will realize strong feelings don't equate to strong facts," said Col. Katz. "It is not a good representation of the entirety of that encounter, and that's probably the downside of social media."
Odembo appeared in court Wednesday. He was released on bond, but he is scheduled to appear in court again in July.
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