A violent arrest by L.A. County deputies was caught on video. Now the man is seeking justice in a federal civil rights lawsuit.
LOS ANGELES — Darryl Walker was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest on April 3, 2014, for defending his son, whom he had tried to bring home from school. He was taken to jail, where he was roughed up and held for hours as more than 50 deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department handcuffed and carried him to a police van.
But as Walker was being loaded into the back of the van, one of his sons saw his father’s booking photo and saw his face. It was then that Walker started filming the arrest on a smartphone, so the officer didn’t arrest his son. For the next several weeks, Walker would watch the video in the back of his mind. He saw his father being thrown to the ground and beaten. He saw deputies drag him into the van.
He heard his mother pleading with deputies to let his father go — but that was impossible. “I’ve never even met my dad,” Walker told BuzzFeed News. “And I can’t imagine a scenario where I would have walked away.”
After his father was released, Walker got a call from his son in jail. “I asked Darryl if he was OK and he said he was fine,” the son said. “I asked if he wants to meet me, to say hi and he said yes.” That’s when Walker went to his father’s cell.
“I asked him again if he was OK, he repeated that he was fine, and that he was home and was watching TV,” the son said. “Then I asked him why he did it and he said ‘I thought it was time for me to tell my story.’ I just told him to keep his mouth shut, that I knew his story and he would not be telling my story.”
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