Six weeks after a Fayetteville police officer was filmed hitting his K-9 several times, some members of the Fayetteville City Council are seeking to obtain police body camera footage of the incident.
In the video, the officer — who the police department has refused to identify — punches the dog three times while holding the K-9’s collar. He then dangles the dog by the collar and drags it, partially suspended in the air with its front legs off the ground, towards his car. The dog attempts to respond with an unsuccessful nip, at which point the officer grabs the dog by the muzzle, closing it shut, and swings it around by the collar, dragging the animal to the car with all four legs in the air.
Animal rights advocates and dog behavior experts who spoke to CityView said the incident amounted to animal cruelty. The police department, meanwhile, has not answered specific questions about the status of the officer involved or the K-9. The department claimed in a statement it has body camera footage from the officers involved showing that the officer’s aggressive behavior toward the dog was prompted by the K-9 biting him on the thigh for “10-12 seconds.”
Council Member Mario Benavente says he wants proof. At Monday’s city council work session, he asked the council to consider requesting body camera footage of the incident through a petition to the Cumberland County Superior Court. He cited public outrage over the incident, which he said included over 6,000 emails to the city from the public.
“I think that should lend any credence to anyone who has concerns that if indeed there were no problems and indeed the entire set of facts that were described in writing were also going to be shown in the video, then any sort of issues will be addressed by releasing the video,” Benavente said.
The discussion was short, limited to the five minutes council members are allotted for individual agenda item requests. Prior to the vote, Council Member Derrick Thompson asked Police Chief Kemberle Braden whether the police department had footage beyond what was captured on social media. Braden, affirming what the department had already said in public statements, said that the department had both officer body camera footage and security camera footage of the incident.
In a consensus vote — designed to gauge the council’s attitude toward an issue – members voted 5-3 to petition the court for police body camera footage of the incident. Benavente, Council Member Malik Davis, Council Member Deno Hondros, Council Member D.J. Haire and Council Member Brenda McNair voted in favor, while Council Member Lynne Greene, Thompson and Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen opposed it. Mayor Mitch Colvin and Council Member Courtney Banks-McLaughlin were absent for the vote.
“I’ll close this by saying that the reason we have these body cams are so that the people can have trust and transparency within our city government, that we’re holding ourselves accountable to their concerns,” Benavente said. “And there’s no reason to have these cameras if we’re not going to release the footage when the people have questions about it.”
City Attorney Lachelle Pulliam said that since it wasn’t a unanimous decision, the request would appear as a discussion item on the agenda of an upcoming regular city council meeting.
Other business
Also at Monday’s meeting, the council unanimously agreed to publish an “interest list” of 57 city-owned properties that staff deemed as “surplus,” and to send out RFPs for developers to submit proposed uses for the idle properties. The properties will be advertised for sale for anyone to bid on.
Kecia Parker, the city’s real estate manager, said she had spent months combing through 685 parcels owned by Fayetteville to determine whether they were being used or might be useful for potential projects. The resulting list of 57 properties can now be sold and returned to the tax rolls, as per the council’s previous direction. Parker also said the city could donate the properties to a nonprofit, such as Habitat for Humanity, which would have specific restrictions on their use according to the city’s specifications.
According to state law, cities that decide to sell surplus property have to sell them at “fair market value.” Parker said that value could be determined through tax revaluation or by getting the properties appraised.
Each of the properties in the list are less than an acre and valued under $17,000, with a combined value of $288,609. Chris Cauley, director of the city’s Economic and Community Development department, acknowledged there were “not very many attractive properties on this list.” Most of the properties, he said, are leftover from land purchased for HOPE VI projects.
From 1993 to 2010, the HOPE VI program was an initiative from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development that aimed to revitalize aging, distressed public housing projects by demolishing them and replacing them with new mixed-income buildings, many of which received funds from both HUD and private donors. There are seven HOPE VI properties in Fayetteville.
The city will soon put out a form for interested buyers of the surplus properties to fill out, staff said. To download the list of surplus properties, click here.
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