HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) – A second colleague of an Alabama police officer accused of using excessive force against an Indian grandfather said Thursday that he thought the takedown used to subdue the man was improper, and a dispatcher said she helped “stack” the officer’s probable cause information by searching for recent incidents he could mention in his paperwork.
Prosecutors called their final witnesses in the second day of testimony in the federal trial of Madison Police Officer Eric Parker, who is accused of depriving Sureshbhai Patel, 58, of his civil rights during a stop on Feb. 6 in suburban Huntsville.
Someone had called police to report a thin black man walking through the neighborhood looking at houses. Police encountered Patel and Parker was recorded throwing the man to the ground after officers made numerous unsuccessful attempts to communicate with him.
Parker has said Patel resisted orders and reached for his pockets. Patel denied the claims through an interpreter on Wednesday, adding that he doesn’t speak English and couldn’t understand the officers’ orders.
Patel said he initially stopped because police were shouting at him – not because he understood what they were saying. Video that was enlarged and slowed down for the jurors showed Patel turn his head to look at Parker just before he was slammed to the ground.