Great video showing police officers from San Jose, grabbing a few after hotel party

A video has surfaced of a couple who were tapped, beaten with batons and shot with a non-lethal firearm after a noise disturbance at a hotel in San Jose last spring in an incident that eventually led to a lawsuit against the city. and multiple police officers.

The incident unfolded in May 2019, when San Jose police department officials responded to a noise disturbance at a Holiday Inn on North First Street, according to the case filed in January in U.S. District Court of Northern California. Marissa Santa Cruz and Paea Tukuafu celebrated a few days before Santa Cruz’s 22nd birthday and wiped out their music after hotel staff knocked on their door.

One officer, identified in the city’s response as Officer Eugene Thompson, told the couple that the hotel would allow them to stay as long as there were no more complaints, which the couple agreed to. The video – which was first obtained and reported by ABC7, the organization’s media partner – then shows Officer Saul Zepeda asking Tukuafu for his ID, saying they need to identify everyone they come in contact with.

The couple pleads for giving up their IDs, but eventually Tukuafu goes back to his room for his ID and hands it over to an officer.

More officers and a sergeant arrived, and the video then shows tensions escalating, with Thompson telling the couple that they should pack up now and leave the hotel because the couple “the (hotel room) door in us face he smitten. “

At that point, according to the complaint, was another officer – identified by ABC7 as Sgt. Michael Pina – threatened to attack the couple while an officer instructed them to pick up a call weapon. Such weapons fire shoe racks that can leave painful injuries and cause long-term damage to people during nationwide demonstrations against police violence, including in San Jose.

Tukuafu and Pina continued to argue, with Tukuafu telling the sergeant to pack up. Pina is then heard saying, “Push up and touch this man.” Santa Cruz tried to get between the officers and Tukuafu, and took a taser hit just below her navel while an officer hit her on the back of her legs, the complaint alleges.

Eventually, the couple ended up in the hallway, where officers beat them with batons – sometimes with two-handed swings – they tapped and shot them according to the lawsuit. Tukuafu was eventually hit twice in the thighs, three times in the abdomen, once in the chest and once on his collarbone, the complaint claims.

Minutes later, an ambulance crew arrived and took the couple directly to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. They were then transported to the prison and spent a night there.

In an April response to the lawsuit, the San Jose City Attorney’s Office acknowledged that officials were responding to a noise disturbance, that they were looking for the couple’s IDs and said they would return them after leaving the hotel and entering the hotel room. The response also acknowledges that officers used a ‘sponge round’ weapon to obtain ‘compliance’ – along with batons and tasers – claiming that the complainants were resisting arrest.

The couple were not charged with crimes after the incident, but when they filed a claim with the city in the fall of 2019 – the first step to the federal lawsuit – they were accused of taking an officer’s weapon and resisting arrest, among other things pak says.