An investigation into police use of a Taser stun gun on a councilman in the Texas city where Sandra Bland was arrested has been turned over to the district attorney, officials said Monday.
The Prairie View councilman, Jonathan Miller, was hit with a stun gun and arrested Thursday outside of his home. Police said one of the two officers involved in the confrontation was also involved in the July arrest of Bland, the black woman who died in her jail cell three days after she was pulled over. Miller is also black.
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The district attorney’s investigation and an internal Prairie View Police Department review will be conducted in part to determine “if there’s any training that our officers can benefit from,” Prairie View Chief of Police Larry Johnson said at a news conference Monday.
“Our goal is to provide the best service that we can and sometimes we fail, sometimes we can do better,” he said.
Johnson and Prairie View Mayor Frank Jackson both refused to give their opinions about cellphone and body cam videos that have surfaced showing Miller getting tasered.
The Prairie View Police Department said in a statement that Miller had “interrupted” the two officers who had stopped four men to question them about suspicious activity in the area. The statement said Miller refused to “allow them to complete their investigation” and “physically resisted” arrest.
“Officers deployed a Taser to subdue Mr. Miller,” the statement said. He was charged with interfering with a public servant and resisting arrest.
Miller told NBC News Monday that he doesn’t feel he did anything wrong, and he was just trying to help out his friends who were being questioned by the officers. Miller said he was “disappointed” by the incident. “I did not understand why or how I was interfering,” he said.
“I knew the officer, she knew me, so I figured if I let her know these are my guests, (it would) kind of lessen the tension,” Miller said.
“If we made mistakes, I’ll tell you we made mistakes,” Johnson said Monday. He added that neither of the officers were on leave.
The officer who was involved in the arrest of Bland is one of six in the police department, and “having the same officer involved in multiple types of incidences is probable,” Johnson said Thursday.
A state trooper, Brian Encinia, pulled over Bland on July 10 and arrested her after a confrontation.
Bland’s jail cell death has been ruled a suicide, but her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the state trooper involved in her arrest and other authorities.
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com.
Elisha Fieldstadt