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Man
Who Shot Los Angeles Beating Video Arrested
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| One
of Inglewood Police officers is accused of excessive use of
force, caught on tape by an amateur cameraman who was taken
into custody |
LOS ANGELES, July 12 (IslamOnline
& News Agencies) - In a bizarre turn of events, the man who shot
the videotape of Inglewood police roughing up an African-American
teen-ager was taken into custody Thursday, July 11, by plainclothes
officers who drove him away as he screamed for help, CNN reported.
Mitchell
Crooks was arrested on an outstanding warrant for petty theft with a
prior conviction, driving under the influence and hit-and-run in
Placer County, in northern California, CNN said.
According
to the news cable channel, he was picked up in Hollywood, just outside
a building housing CNN offices, and taken to the grand jury looking
into the beating case. Crooks had spent much of his time over the past
two days with a producer for a television studio housed in the same
building.
The
arrest was captured on crisp surveillance video as well as by a CNN
photographer.
Because
of the arrest, Crooks had failed to appear before the grand jury
Thursday morning as scheduled.
During
Crooks' own videotaped arrest, screams for help could be heard coming
from the unmarked vehicle with blacked out windows into which Crooks
had been bundled ahead of his expected testimony, Agence Presse-France
(AFP) said.
Crooks
told a local radio station late Wednesday, July 10, he did not want to
come forward with the tape as: "I fear for my life."
The
Placer County sheriff's office said Crooks was arrested in February
1999 for stealing two VCRs from his mother's home.
On
his way to steal them, he was in a traffic accident and fled the
scene; he was later charged with hit and run and driving under the
influence for that wreck, CNN said.
Crooks
was convicted of the three crimes in March 1999 and sentenced to seven
months in jail but failed to report for the sentence, leading to the
warrant for his address, the Placer County sheriff's office said.
As
Crooks was placed in the black Ford Explorer Thursday, CNN
photographer David Lake heard him say to the officers that they were
probably going to beat him like the police in the Inglewood incident
he had captured on tape.
From
inside the car, Crooks yelled at the top of his lungs, "Help!
Help! Help! Help me!" as the SUV drove away.
Thursday
night, a spokeswoman for the DA's office said Crooks was taken to the
Los Angeles County USC Medical Center after "complaining of
injuries." He remained in county custody, CNN said.
Dean
Masserman, an attorney for Crooks, told CNN he was given permission to
see but not speak to Crooks as he was being transferred on a gurney
from an examination room to have X-rays taken.
"He
doesn't look good," Masserman said. "He was strapped
down," but did not have any visible injuries.
Dan
Hanna, who has been traveling with Crooks for the last two months,
said his friend was terrified of the police after he shot the video
and realized its value to the beating case.
"He
felt that if the police found the video then they would be able to
brush the whole thing under the table," Hanna told CNN's
"Connie Chung Tonight."
Meanwhile,
anger against the police was rising in Los Angeles, one of the world's
most ethnically diverse cities, ahead of a series of rallies called to
demand justice for Jackson, AFP said.
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