Cell Phone Video Of Alabama Police Arresting Black Robbery Suspect, Goes Viral!

MOBILE, AL -
A confrontation between a robbery suspect and a Mobile Police officer has went viral on social media. Some are questioning the officer's actions, others are saying job well done.

The arrest happened Saturday night right in the middle of the downtown entertainment district. Someone recorded the incident on their cell phone. The video is about three minutes long.

Since being posted on Facebook, the video has been viewed more than half a million times, including by newly-appointed Police Chief Lawrence Battiste.

"I was concerned about the safety of the officer and the safety of the young man who was arrested. Those were my first thoughts... I looked at the situation and said this could have been a whole lot worse," said Chief Battiste.

Police identify the suspect as 37-year-old Ontario Stewart. According to police, Stewart is homeless and frequents downtown. At the time of his arrest, Stewart was wanted on two felony warrants for allegedly robbing the Family Dollar store on North Broad Street just hours before.

The video starts moments after the officer tased Stewart. It had little effect on Stewart. Refusing to comply with the officer's demands to get on the ground, Stewart leads the officer down the sidewalk and into the street before the confrontation takes a physical turn as both officers take him down in the middle of the street.

"There was some additional physical force used soft hands, hard hands, those will be reviewed. But at this point with what I saw on the social media site, the officer exercised great restraint in trying to deal with a subject that had two active felony warrants for Robbery 1st," said Chief Battiste. "The officer stayed with the less lethal, which was the taser, until he got some additional backup and they were able to execute the arrest.

Police are very familiar with Stewart, he's been booked into Metro Jail 38 times since 1998. His wrap sheet includes drug and theft arrests, including three charges of resisting arrest.

"If you are compliant that gives us an opportunity to address any problems as it relates to us having an officer that may have done something they shouldn't have. If that's the case recourse will be taken. But when you have are non-compliant like Mr. Stewart was in this particular situation all of is actions could have lead to a more serious escalation of force than there needed to be at that particular time," said Battiste.

Battiste says the officer was wearing a body camera. but it's department policy to not release body cam video. At this time, the officer does not face disciplinary action. The case is still under review.

"There will be normal protocol of an investigation and once that investigation is complete we will make if there is anything we need to do - whether we need to increase training, whether we need to take disciplinary action against the officer. We will look at all of those things at that time, but at this point from what I've seen the officer exercised extreme restraint," said Battiste.