Video of Lakeland Police Punching and Tasing 16-Year-Old Sparks Outrage (2024)

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The Lakeland Police Department is under fire for the video-recorded beating and arrest of a 16-year-old boy who was allegedly being rowdy with several teenage friends in an apartment complex swimming pool on Memorial Day.

Bystander video of the incident has been widely shared, with many people tagging LPD.

Investigation underway: Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor said he signed paperwork Tuesday afternoon to launch an internal affairs investigation.

All LPD officers wear body cameras, including the two in the social media video — officers Christopher McKee and Jose Diaz-Acosta. Their body-cam video is now a part of the investigation and, Taylor said, as such, can’t be released to the public.

Rowdy pool party

Police called: The incident began at 5:15 p.m. Monday when a woman at The Caroline apartments on Griffin Road called 9-1-1 to complain that several teenagers who did not live at the complex were using the pool, being loud and cursing.

Taylor said he sympathized with kids trying to cool off on a blistering hot holiday and said no one would’ve paid them any attention if they had behaved. “It’s 900 degrees outside and he’s doing what teenaged kids do — they find a pool and they find a place to swim,” Taylor said.

“One of the moms asked them to tone down the language and they gave her the what-for, too, and then that prompted the call to the police,” he said. “Obviously it went downhill from there. They didn’t want to tell us their names, they didn’t want to tell us where they live, they told us they didn’t have to talk to us.”

Trespass warning: An arrest affidavit shows that the apartment complex manager asked officers to give a trespass warning to all of the teenagers, which is a written citation ordering a person to leave a property and not return. It is a misdemeanor and does not involve an arrest unless the person refuses to leave.

That’s what police say happened with Jahmal Hudson, 16, the youth shown in the video. However, there are different versions of the heated exchange that preceded the beating.

Heated words: In the affidavit, McKee said he gave Hudson several commands to leave the property and, although the teen exited the pool area to gather his belongings, he refused to identify himself. “Hudson continued to ignore my verbal commands and stuck his hand in my face, while stating, ‘I don’t have to talk to you.’”

One of the teenagers recounted it differently on social media. He said at least one of the teens was a resident of the complex and the officer angered Hudson by mocking him for being overweight: “So as we getting our stuff to leave the police just egging on a CHILD. Talking about his weight, saying next time he come out here he needs to go to the gym.”

Allegations of police brutality

Physical altercation: McKee said he decided to take Hudson into custody after the teen raised his hand.

“I attempted to grab Hudson by his right arm, but he immediately tensed his body and attempted to pull away from my grasp,” McKee wrote. “I informed Hudson he was under arrest and to stop resisting. I was able to maintain control of Hudson as I guided him toward a wall.

As McKee tried to arrest him, one of the other teens began recording on a cellphone. The 29-second video begins with Hudson backed into a corner by the two officers. McKee is trying to subdue Hudson, while Diaz-Acosta pivots to face an unknown number of people off-camera who are yelling.

The video: In the video, McKee punches Hudson in the face and Hudson yells, “He just f—ing punched me.”

McKee is seen punching Hudson five or six times as he tries to take the teen down to the floor of what appears to be the clubhouse or office of the apartment complex.

Diaz-Acosta yells at the crowd to get back, then grabs Hudson by his hair and pulls him out of the corner while McKee twists his arm in an attempt to subdue him and take him to the floor.

As Hudson is bent over, McKee punches him again and Hudson hits back. Hudson stands upright and Diaz-Acosta pulls back, swings and lands a punch to Hudson’s face. Hudson hits Diaz-Acosta and is tased by McKee, to the screams of two females off camera. Hudson falls to the floor and his legs jerk. McKee places a knee at the base of Hudson’s head or on his neck and puts him in handcuffs.

The affidavit stated he was taken to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center for medical clearance and then to the Juvenile Assessment Facility in Bartow.

The boy’s mother speaks out: Hudson’s mother, listed as Jactae Lewis in the affidavit, did not respond to a call from LkldNow. However, she spoke with WTSP NewsChannel 10 and said she was outraged.

“They were told to leave, and they were leaving,” Ja’Tae Lewis told NewsChannel 10. “It’s disgusting how he was treated.”

Hudson told WTSP that he was angered when the officer commented on his weight and put his hand in the officer’s face, telling him he didn’t want to hear anything more from him.

Lewis said her son was released from the hospital, but she took him back to Lakeland Regional after she saw the video.

“His whole jaw was swollen. His ear was swollen. His lip was busted. He has a patch of hair missing from his head from one of the police officers pulling his hair,” she told NewsChannel 10. “My son is pinned in a corner. No other place to go but forward to defend himself … I threw up. I was sick to my stomach. I was sick.”

Community outrage: The video has prompted a barrage of outrage, with many people saying the officers’ actions were wildly disproportionate to the alleged offense, and some noting that Hudson was wet from the pool when he was tased.

Terry Coney, president of the NAACP Lakeland Branch, said there needs to be some kind of national standard for use of force, citing a “use of force continuum” protocol.

“I watched the video and talked to Chief Taylor,” said Coney, a U.S. Air Force veteran whose service included a stint as a military policeman. “My biggest issue is that professionally trained police officers shouldn’t be in a fistfight with a teenager.”

History: Hudson’s beating came days after the fourth anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis Police. It is also not the first controversial videotaped incident involving Lakeland Police.

In December 2022, a videotape of LPD’s street crimes unit officers punching and tasing Antwan Glover, 36, was circulated on social media. In July 2023, a report cleared LPD Sgt. Mark Eby, Detective Dillon Cornn, and Officers Anton Jefferson and Jason McCain of wrongdoing in the arrest of Glover.

In 2018, LPD officers J.R. West and DeAngelo Anthony were cleared of wrongdoing after a video shot by a passing motorist showed them hitting and kicking 38-year-old Justin Abbott, a homeless man whom they had awakened under the I-4 overpass on U.S. 98 North.

An LPD spokesman said an officer kicked Abbott to keep him from obtaining the officer’s taser.

What’s next: It will be several months before the internal affairs report into Hudson’s arrest is completed and released to the public.

In the meantime, Hudson is facing three charges as a result of the incident:

• Trespassing and failing to leave a property upon an owner’s request, a misdemeanor.
• Battery on a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony.
• Resisting an officer with violence, a third-degree felony.