Citizen Report No. 1632868096 - 1375446908

A protester yells at a line of police from across the street before they walk over, arrest him and pepper-spray him and a woman next to him.

On Aug. 10, 2020, Tarence Maddox, the man arrested on the video, filed a lawsuit against the officers on behalf of himself and his daughter, who was also pepper-sprayed. After spraying the two, the officers “continued to spray their MK-9 pepper foggers into the crowd like they were spraying silly string at a birthday party,” the suit alleges. Missouri Assistant Attorney General Diane Peters filed a response on behalf of the officers, denying that the “use of force was without cause,” and claiming “official immunity” because the officers’ actions “involved discretion and were performed in good faith.” Tom Porto, Maddox’s attorney, said he did not file a complaint with the Police Department because, “I have zero trust in that process.” A jury trial in the case is scheduled for January 2022. In justifying the use of pepper spray, the department said the man did not resist arrest, “however the associated response from the crowd was aggressive and violent by throwing various objects and physically interfering with the arrest, which is also a crime for which they were not arrested for at that time, that is what led to the officers response with pepper spray.” On June 18, 2020, the City Council passed an ordinance clearing charges for all of the individuals arrested in three protest areas from May 29 to June 2. When we asked for any police narrative written about the arrest in the video, the department said that it would not have any such document because of the council vacating the charge. “So it is as though it never happened,” the department said. However, Porto provided ProPublica with a copy of the Police Department’s incident report, which stated that Maddox “was given several verbal commands to stay out of the street and return to the sidewalk, which he refused to comply.” On March 12, 2021, a grand jury in Jackson County indicted McQuillen on a misdemeanor count of assault. According to the indictment, he “recklessly caused physical injury to the juvenile when he sprayed chemicals into her face during the protest in the Country Club Plaza on May 30, 2020.” McQuillen did not reply to a request for comment in March 2021. The other officers did not respond to an emailed request for comment in September 2020. Hall and Oakes were both involved in a shooting incident in 2016 that left several people injured, as reported by The Kansas City Star.