Police in Lafayette, Indiana have finally released a video taken in October of last year showing police Lieutenant Tom Davidson pushing over 25-year old paraplegic Nicolas Kincade. Kincade fell out of his chair and suffered abrasions to his face.
The push was carried out in 'retaliation' for Kincade running over Davidson's foot with his wheelchair, something that Kincade states in the video, "[he] didn't see [Davidson]."
Kincade was arrested on a Class D felony of battery against an officer, but the charges were dropped 5 months after the arrest. Lieutenant Davidson, in a civilian trial conducted by the Civil Service Commission, received a demotion in rank and a 30-day suspension without pay. He is already back to work, currently in administrative duty.
They judged him to have done actions unbecoming an officer, but in a 3-2 decision, deemed that Davidson had not used excessive forced against Kincade, lessening the punishment for the incident.
Police were initially called to the area when Excel Center school security reported that Kincade had a gun in his backpack. While police determined that to be untrue, they instead found a pocketknife in Kincade's backpack, something he says he carries for his own protection.
After a conversation with police, Kincade tried to move away on his motorized wheelchair and ran over Davidson's foot. In the video, one can clearly see that there was ample time from when the wheelchair started moving to the point where the wheel went over Davidson's foot, and according to his superiors, he could have moved out of the way.
"It's clear to us that the whole use of force in this case could have been avoided just by different positioning, by offset positioning, by moving out of the way, by not standing where he was standing," said Police Chief Patrick Flannelly.
Kincade has stated that he believes the officer's actions to be excessive, and that Davidson should be fired.
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