The Fayetteville City Council voted 8-2 Monday to petition the Cumberland County Superior Court to release to the public the police body camera footage of the incident in which a Fayetteville police officer struck his K-9.
Petitioning the court involves city staff filing a civil action against the city of Fayetteville to ask the court to release footage of the incident in the Fayetteville Police Department’s possession to the general public.
“These actions require the city to sue itself, and then the judge, if the judge sees fit, will schedule a hearing,” City Attorney Lachelle Pulliam said. “There will be a hearing on the matter, and then the judge will decide if the city can release it or not.”
The vote came after four people spoke about the incident during the meeting’s public comment period. The council expressed interest in petitioning for the footage at its meeting last week.
“I think we had really important commentary from our community on this matter, and I think it’s our duty to be transparent and hold ourselves accountable,” Council Member Mario Benavente, who had requested the vote, said.
Benavente joined Mayor Mitch Colvin and Council Members Malik Davis, Brenda McNair, Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Deno Hondros, D.J. Haire and Lynne Greene in support of releasing the footage; Derrick Thompson and Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen voted in opposition.
Christina Matthies, who said she was speaking on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, implored the council to ask for the release of the footage and conduct an independent investigation into the incident, citing the one that took place in Salisbury in 2021, when a police officer slammed his K-9 dog into his cruiser. The officer resigned after a third-party investigation into the incident.
“Resistance to releasing the body camera footage can only mean that there is something to hide,” Matthies said. “Thus far, the police has been permitted to police itself, and the public has no answers.”
Jensen, who voted against asking the court to release the footage, told CityView she had concerns about the impact of potential litigation on taxpayers’ wallets. By filing the lawsuit to release the footage, the city would essentially be “suing itself,” City Attorney Lachelle Pulliam said.
“I think one of the things that got me is when they said the ‘city’s suing the city,’ and who’s going to pay for the court cost and everything, and our attorney said ‘the taxpayers,’” Jensen said.
Community activist Lisette Rodriguez said she appreciated the police department providing the public with updates after the K-9 incident, and encouraged it to do the same with other incidents, such as the case of Lawrence Artis, who reportedly shot himself while in handcuffs last October, or that of DeMarcus Brodie, who was shot and killed by a Fayetteville police officer last Thanksgiving during a traffic stop. She also expressed support for releasing the footage of the K-9 incident.
“I want to credit the Fayetteville Police Department — in the days following this incident, they released a list of all the steps that they took during their internal investigation, and they were clear with the public about how many video recordings of the incident they obtained, what statements were made, what records were reviewed, who reviewed those records,” Rodriguez said. “And that is exactly what the FPD should be doing for any victim, human or otherwise.”
Jutta King, a dog trainer and dog behavior expert who spoke to CityView previously about her concerns, also asked for transparency and the release of the footage during her public comment. King said the video — once it’s released — should be used as a “learning tool” for what happens when an officer loses control, not as a means to fault the dog for what happened. She also expressed concern that the police department has still not released information about the status of the K-9.
“We, the people of Fayetteville, would like to know where the dog is and what his future holds,” King said.
Other takeaways from Monday’s meeting:
- SROs: The council voted 8-2 to approve agreements for the city to provide school resource officers and traffic control officers to Cumberland County Schools through the end of next June. The Fayetteville Police Department will provide six SROs for the nine high schools in Fayetteville when classes start on Aug. 26, and provide one SRO for each of the nine high schools by the first of next year. The department will also provide 66 traffic control officers to elementary, middle and high schools in the city limits; 56 of these officers have already been hired, Police Chief Kemberle Braden said, and he expects to hire the rest by Aug. 19. Benavente and Hondros voted in opposition, with Benavente stating the “uniform swap is a missed opportunity” to rethink the purpose of SROs in schools; Hondros raised similar concerns, stating the change is an “opportunity to have a larger conversation” about the state of schools under county management.
- Housing funds: The council unanimously approved changes to its one-year and five-year Housing and Urban Development action plans. The changes translate to expanded eligibility programs for the city’s down payment assistance program, which will no longer require applicants to provide matching funds. They also include more funding to address homelessness in the form of a $155,374 grant that nonprofits can apply for, for programs that do street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing assistance programs.
- McArthur Road Sports Complex: City management said the project completion for Fayetteville’s proposed sports complex on McArthur Road has been extended to the end of 2029, as per updated agreements with Fort Liberty, which owns the land where the city is building the complex. The updated agreement also allows for more flexibility in the number of fields that the complex will have, committing to a minimum of six fields with the possibility of adding more in the future, staff said.
- Amusement park: The idea of constructing an amusement park in Fayetteville has been effectively killed with the council voting 6-4 to not include an administrative report at the next work session. The vote comes after a meeting of city and county officials on Aug. 1, in which the county expressed disinterest in the project. An aquatic center may still be possible, though, since both county and city officials have displayed enthusiasm in such a project.
- Homeless bus passes: The council appropriated a $3,010 grant to the Fayetteville Police Department from the Cumberland Community Foundation; the funds will be used to purchase bus passes for individuals who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of becoming homeless.
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. To keep CityView Today going and to grow our impact even more, we’re asking our committed readers to consider becoming a member. Click here to join.
