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A Springfield Police Department officer has been arrested on criminal charges after an incident involving excessive force on an unarmed man with special needs.
On Tuesday, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and Springfield PD held a joint news conference, announcing that former officer Ronnie Nelson had been arrested on a felony official misconduct charge and a misdemeanor battery charge. Nelson has been placed on unpaid leave and is pending termination.
This comes after an incident was recorded on body-cam footage of Nelson pulling and deploying a taser on an unarmed black man, Solomon Smith, after what Sheriff Ford has called a “bad” or unwarranted stop. The incident happened on Business Highway 98 in Springfield, after officers stopped Smith as he was walking alone around midnight on May 29.
“It’s an embarrassing situation,” said Ford. “It’s an infuriating situation from a law enforcement perspective.”
Springfield Police Chief Barry Roberts said he saw the footage during a routine investigation into use-of-force.
“It was gut-wrenching,” said Roberts. “Immediately upon seeing it I contacted a prosecutor at the state attorney’s office.”
Investigators say the incident occurred after officers thought Smith had given them a fake name. According to the police report, Smith had actually given the officer the correct name, Solomon E.Smith, but a trainee officer “misheard” it as Solomon “Eastman.”
Smith’s mother has also told police that Smith has a developmental disorder that he was diagnosed with as a child.
The body-cam footage shows Smith being taken onto the ground; he can be heard pleading with officers to let him go home, saying he had done nothing wrong. The investigation has also shown that Nelson falsified the police report, saying Smith had tried to throw a punch at the rookie officer on scene. Two other officers on scene have told investigators that Smith never tried to throw a punch.
As of Tuesday morning, Nelson had been arrested.
