Shortly after police showed up to the scene of a three-car crash in Cobb County, things got worse for one of the drivers and his passengers.
Stephen McClure took out his phone and started recording video of the Nov. 26 interaction with Smyrna police, Channel 2 Action News reported.
“I told him, ‘Start recording. Hang up with me and start recording,’” Leslie Ramos, McClure’s wife, told the news station.
Police said they smelled burnt marijuana in the air when they approached driver Kahlil Smith’s 2012 Hyundai Sonata on South Cobb Drive at Windy Hill Road, according to a police report.
The officer asked Smith whether anyone had or had smoked marijuana and Smith said no, the report states.
But when the officer encouraged McClure and fellow passenger Raul Morales to get out, McClure refused and said his back hurt from the crash.
Ramos questioned why her husband and friend couldn’t have been given the benefit of the doubt and examined for injuries.
“Come on, come on, man. You can't grab me like that,” McClure said on the video as officers grabbed at his neck. “My back hurts; I just got into an accident.”
The officers wanted to check Smith’s car for drugs, but they never found any and instead charged McClure and Smith with obstruction.
Morales complied, police wrote in the report, and was not arrested. According to Channel 2, he had a gun in his possession.
Smyrna police spokesman Louis Defense told Channel 2 the officers on the scene offered assistance at least three times.
“We used the appropriate amount of force necessary to have the gentleman to get out of the car,” Defense said.
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