Sheriff's office releases incomplete video of what led up to deputy hitting teen at zoo
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office on Friday released body camera and dashcam footage of an incident last month that ended with a deputy punching a teen multiple times at the Milwaukee County Zoo, but it left out a key portion of the video.
Cell phone video released by one of the teen's friends only showed the officer hitting the teen as she was on the ground. The sheriff's office said a deputy used force in the October 22 incident after the teen swung and kicked at the deputy first.
The video released Friday afternoon backs up that statement, but it also omits what caused deputies to forcefully remove the teen's older sister from the driver's seat of a car, prompting the teen to hit the deputy.
How it started
The video begins with an unidentified deputy talking to a worker at the zoo. The timestamp on the body camera is 9:55 p.m. The worker points out a group of women outside the main gate and tells the deputy they'd been arguing with each other.
The deputy approaches the women, who explain they'd been arguing amongst themselves and were now waiting for one of the women's older sister for a ride.
One of the women, later identified as 17-year-old Envy Hampton, is immediately hostile toward the deputy. At one point, she tells the deputy to open the gate and let the women back onto the Zoo grounds because that's where her sister pulled up.
The deputy tells the women he won't let them because the zoo is closed. The women point out the sister is on speaker phone saying she's at the zoo.
"Do you f***ing hear her?" Hampton tells the deputy. "I'm gonna f***ing spaz out on you."
A couple minutes later, the deputy approaches the older sister at her car. He asks for her ID, but the woman says she doesn't have it.
"I'm her sister, and I'm just trying to get her out of here, and I don't do police, so I don't want to be extra," the woman explained.
"That's fine. I'll get you out of here," the deputy responded.
The deputy the driver for her name, and at first she refused, before eventually relenting. The woman said her name was "Tiffany."
Three days after the incident, the woman told CBS 58 her name is actually Nayah Dowell, and court records back that up. Court records show one week after the zoo incident, Dowell was cited for driving with a revoked license.
Eventually, the three women got onto the zoo grounds and get into Dowell's car. By 10:11 p.m., the deputy is now talking to Kevonia Brown, who calmly repeats that the women had been arguing with each other, and their dispute never got physical.
"No, we just argued," Brown said when the deputy asks if anyone was assaulted. "And I guess [the Zoo] was closing up, so they wanted us to wait outside for our ride, and that's what we did."
Less than a minute later, backup deputies arrived, and Dowell became agitated.
"You don't gotta come over here!" she said at the sight of additional deputies. "Why is you all bringing all these police?!"
Earlier in the video, the deputy called for backup as Dowell didn't want to share her date of birth and objected to the deputy documenting her license plate number.
A sudden edit
Within seconds of Dowell protesting at the sight of backup arriving, the video provided by the sheriff's office abruptly cuts to another deputy's body camera.
The time stamp on that deputy's camera is 8:15 p.m., and he's driving up to the scene. Once the deputy gets out of the car, the camera shows three other deputies trying to pull Dowell out of the driver's side door. One of the deputies has a taser drawn.
Once deputies pull Dowell from the car, Hampton gets out of the backseat and shoves the deputy trying to keep her back.
Hampton then swings and kicks at the deputy, who punches Hampton in the torso three times while she's on the ground resisting his attempt to handcuff her.
The video also includes a dashcam version showing the same series of events involving Hampton and the backup deputy. Nothing in the 19-minute video shows what prompted deputies to order Dowell out of the car or why they decided to remove her by force.
When asked about the omitted video, James Burnett, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said there was "no conspiracy." Instead, Burnett said authorities were attempting to show the "main element" of the encounter.
CBS 58 has since filed an open records request seeking recordings of the entire interaction from each of the responding deputies' body cameras.
Hampton has since been charged with battery to a law enforcement officer, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison, as well as misdemeanor charges of resisting an officer and disorderly conduct. Dowell has been charged with resisting an officer and disorderly conduct.