AURORA, Colo. — Body camera video shows police in Aurora pointing guns at the head and body of a Black man who turned out not to be the fugitive they were looking for during a traffic stop in 2020.
“I was shocked,” said Teddy Pittman, 44, of the incident in which police forced him at gunpoint to exit his vehicle, get down on the ground and be cuffed while police ran his background.
“I was just minding my own business,” he said.
The traffic stop occurred in April 2020 as Aurora Police, Denver Police and law enforcement officers with the Department of Corrections were working to track down a fugitive who was also Black.
Body camera footage provided by Pittman’s attorney shows one officer claiming a gun was found in Pittman’s car; however, a gun was never recovered from his vehicle. The video shows Pittman remaining silent and calm while complying with every police order.
Pittman said he was scared and stressed during the encounter.
“I just didn't want to do anything outside of what they were directing me because, you know, things happen,” Pittman said.
The video shows one officer telling an Aurora Police officer that Pittman was not the correct target after his identification was checked.
“I don’t know if he’s got dope in there or whatever,” the officer says. “... It’s not our guy, and we are in your city, so push it as far as you want or don’t want. It looks like he has a CDL. He’s not who we were after, which sucks.”
After police did not find any active warrants on Pittman’s record, they let him go free, but not before giving him a citation for a bad left turn and a suspended license.
> Watch the body camera video of the April 24 2020, traffic stop below:
Pittman filed complaints against the police and filed his own lawsuit in federal court. A few months later, a judge dismissed the citation “in the best interest of justice,” according to court documents.
Pittman, through his attorney Chris Ponce, has filed an amended federal lawsuit against the officers from Aurora, Denver and the Department of Corrections, alleging wrongful search and seizure and racial profiling.
“The police in this case essentially went nuclear on use of force,” civil attorney Chris Ponce said.
“That whole situation could have been avoided if more efforts were made, before that use of force to figure out ‘Hey, who is this guy that we're about to pull our guns on’” Ponce said.
The incident occurred nine months after the death of Elijah McClain and during a time in which independent investigators found “Aurora Police has a pattern and practice of racially biased policing” and “excessive force.”
Four months after police pulled over Pittman, Aurora Police were seen on video pointing guns at a Black mother and several children after mistaking their car as stolen. 9NEWS reported this month there is a “tentative settlement” in the case.
The Aurora Police Department, Denver Police Department and the Department of Corrections would not provide comment for this story. All three agencies cited Pittman’s pending litigation as the reason.
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