Two San Diego police officers were recorded beating a homeless man named Jesse Evans, 34, in La Jolla, Calif. on May 12. Evans was already on the ground when the officers continued to strike him in the face and head.
According to Nicole Bansal, who recorded the footage around 9 a.m., Evans is homeless and well-known in the area. She said that he keeps to himself and never bothers anyone. Others in the neighborhood described Evans as always reading a book and very friendly.
“I just see him out and about pretty regularly multiple times a week, if not every day,” said Bansal. “He doesn’t bother anyone. He just keeps to himself. He’s out on his walk, and he sometimes talks to himself, but no, I’ve never seen him interact with anyone.” Bansal began recording when she realized it was Evans who was detained by the SDPD officers.
Bansal can be heard on the video begging the officers to stop as they were beating Evans in the face. Bansal said that the officers did not attempt to de-escalate. “There was no movement made to de-escalate,” she said. “The immediate movement was to take him down. I don’t understand.”
A spokesman for the SDPD, Lt. Shawn Takeuchi, said that Evans was resisting after the police confronted him for urinating in public.
“From a distance, the officers tried to talk to the man,” wrote Takeuchi. The officers decided to approach the man because urinating in public violates the law. The man would not stop to speak with officers therefore an officer held the man to detain him.”
Footage from the police officer’s body-cam was also released by the SDPD. One officer can be heard saying to Evans, “You can’t urinate in public, my man … People have to walk by here and watch you urinate? That’s not cool, man.”
Evans is heard saying that he didn’t want to piss his pants and “Leave me the f*ck alone,” at which point the officers decided to stop Evans, even though they had another call. The officers yelled “stop resisting,” as they struggled to cuff him and repeatedly hit him in the face and head.
“F*ck you, I hope your f*ckin toilet stops working, too,” Evans said later in the video. When he is informed he is under arrest, he asked “For trying to take a f*ckin piss?”
Evans was taken to the hospital before being charged with three felony counts of resisting an officer. He was also charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery on a police officer and one misdemeanor count for throwing a police radio. His bond is $20,000, and was not charged for urinating in public.
San Diego Councilman Joe LaCava, said that the beating was a disgrace.
“This should not have happened,” said LaCava. “The Police Department has launched an investigation but officers should not be put in a position to address a situation better suited for behavioral health professionals. We must take immediate action to change how our city responds to these situations.”
President of the San Diego NAACP, Francine Maxwell, sent an email to the SDPD police chief, David Nisleit, which said that the community would not tolerate such violence targeting the citizens of San Diego.
“We are deeply saddened and angered to see the San Diego Police Department act with such violence against someone who presented no apparent risk to anyone. The NAACP will not accept unnecessary violence against our citizens … To yell ‘stop resisting’ and to continually punch and slap this man was clearly not conducive to calming the situation.”
In another letter to the City Attorney Mara Elliott, Maxwell said that trying to urinate in public is not justification for what the police did to Mr. Evans.
