Keller City Council scheduled a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss a controversial halt to police traffic and excessive force complaints that led to a federal lawsuit.
On August 25, Dillon Puente was on his way to his grandmother’s house when Police Officer Keller, the sergeant. Blake Shimanek shot him and accused him of making a wide turn.
The city of Keller released the video dashcam and body camera of the incident on Wednesday.
Shimanek can be heard in the video asking Puente why he raised his window and behaved “suspiciously”.
A few seconds later, Puente was handcuffed.
Then Puente’s father, Marco, started the car and started recording videos on his mobile phone.
“Hey, take off,” Shimanek told him.
“This is my father,” Dillon Puente told the officer.
“You are about to be arrested for blocking the road if you do not park and exit,” Shimanek told Marco Puente.
The dashcam video showed that it did not block the road at all and stopped near the curb.
Regardless, Marco Puente parked on the street and walked back to the spot, still recording, and sat on the sidewalk, across from his son and Shimanek.
The sergeant ordered his reserve officer, Ankit Tomer, to arrest Marco Puente “for blocking the road.”
“This guy is arresting me just because I was staying here,” Marco Puente said as the two officers threw him to the ground.
Then the situation escalated even more. Tomer pepper sprinkled Puente in front.
“I don’t even do anything,” Puente said.
The officers decided to take Dillon Puente to prison because he made a wide turn, and his father because he resisted arrest and intervened in the police.
Marco Puente repeatedly complained about the pepper spray, said he could not breathe and sought medical attention.
“I’m suffocating with my own snout,” he said. “Wipe it (my face) with my shirt, please.”
But 15 minutes later, doctors met him at Keller Prison and received assistance by wiping his face.
“My reaction is still the same,” Marco Puente said in an interview on Thursday. “I don’t know why I was arrested because I was there filming, except he just didn’t like it.”
Two days after the incident, Puente said that Keller police chief apologized, agreed to drop all charges and even reimburse his son’s fine for making a wide return.
“He met me and shook my hand and apologized officially,” said Marco Puente.
The chief demoted the sergeant. Shimanek to the officer.
Marco Puente filed a lawsuit in the US court, appointing officers Shimanek and Tomer.
The lawsuit alleges that Shimanek targeted Dillon Puente, 23, because he was a young Latino man and falsely believed he had drugs in his car. No drugs were found.
“I don’t think he should have contact with the public right now,” Puente’s lawyer, Scott Palmer, said. “Maybe an office job to really think about his actions, because they have consequences.”
James Roberts, Palmer’s associate, agreed.
“They didn’t do anything to help him after they used pepper spray on him,” Roberts said. “They knew he was suffering. They were able to help him and did nothing.”
Lawyers said the officers’ own videos are their best evidence.
Keller Police Chief Brad Fortune did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Mayor Armin Mizani posted a message on the city’s website, saying that the police must “work continuously to strengthen” the standards and announcing that the city council will hold a special meeting on Tuesday at 18:00.
“I hope to share more information with residents following this discussion,” Mizani said.