Member of Mid-Missouri Drug Task Force Kick Suspect Lying Restrained on Ground

**kellyhound** · #1 ● 01-14-2015, 08:13 AM

Chattanooga, TN, Drug task force video of an arrest differs markedly from the police reports written by the plainclothes detectives involved in the incident.

The video begins with the final moments of a car chase between Timothy Whittle and two plainclothes detectives, Michael Chinn and Kip Bartlett.

Chinn and Bartlett were members of the Mid-Missouri Drug Task Force, and they were approaching Whittle’s home in order to serve a warrant allowing them to search the premises for materials used to manufacture methamphetamine — but they never got the chance, as Whittle and another man left the home in an SUV and drove to a nearby property.

Once they arrived, Whittle exited the SUV and entered a black pickup truck. At that point, task force officers charged and Whittle took off.

The officers gave chase — as did a Missouri National Guard helicopter, which was recording the events.

After a long pursuit, Whittle drove into a field, jumped out of the still-moving truck and ran. He eventually gave up, and raised his hands in surrender. He then lay down on his stomach.

In the video, the first detective to arrive immediately sat on Whittle and attempted to restrain him.

When the second officer — identified as Chinn — arrived, he kicked Whittle in the face, then held a Taser to Whittle’s back and used it to subdue him.

Chinn then gave handcuffs to his partner, who cuffed Whittle. When Whittle lifted his face, blood can be seen streaming down it from a gash above his eyes.

However, the official police reports filed by both detectives make no mention of the kick or its effect on Whittle.

“As I approached I observed the suspect Timothy Whittle continuing to turn his head,” Chinn wrote, “attempting to resist by furtive movements.

While running I swiftly arrived next to the suspect and gave him a dry stun, and an application of a five second burst from the Taser in the center of his back to gain compliance and control.”

“At this time the suspect, Timothy Whittle, stopped resisting.”

Bartlett wrote that he “ordered [Whittle] to the ground. Once on the ground I attempted to handcuff him. Whittle started stiffing his arms and kept pulling his right arm away. I was telling to stop resisting.”

He did mention that Whittle sustained “two small cuts” above his eye, but wrote that “Whittle told me he had hit his head on the windshield when he jumped a mound of dirt in one of the fields.”

In the video, however, there is no blood on Whittle’s face until after he is kicked by the detective.

According to The Star, “the full chase and arrest video…shows other instances where the officer’s written reports don’t match the video.”

Whittle has hired an attorney, and on her advice did not speak to The Star. The attorney, however, said in a statement that the Whittle family “looks forward to sharing the truth about the police brutality that goes beyond the video clip shown to the media and the lies used by law enforcement to cover it up.”