After an explosive altercation that was captured on camera, the man in the video, Michael Evans, has come out to share his side of the story. He told ABC13 that he was not armed during the incident.
He claimed the encounter occurred after an argument with his child’s mother, during which he ran away with her phone. The woman’s sister, identified as the deputy, tracked Evans down in her personal vehicle. According to Evans, he only began filming what was happening at the demand of his family members.
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Kesha Ross, Evans’ cousin who was speaking on the phone with him at the time of the incident, said it could have been handled better.
“She could have called the police to get the phone back,” Ross said.
When she later saw the footage and the deputy’s use of force, she was horrified.
Ross said, “Even though he may not have been in the right at the time, it still doesn’t make it right for her to take action herself. That’s not how things go. You can’t take the law into your own hands just because you’ve got a badge. That’s not right.”
Meanwhile, the Harris County Precinct 1 deputy constable has been reassigned while an internal investigation is conducted. Constable Alan Rosen, who announced this on the evening of August 5, said the deputy’s behavior is being examined, and “the public can be assured” that “we will be transparent with the outcome.”
According to Rosen, the deputy was off duty, but the video shows her in full uniform pointing her gun at Evans during the heated argument and making threats.
“Play with me. Play with me,” the deputy yelled in the video. “Give me the (expletive) phone.”
A statement from Rosen read, “What we understand at this point, is that this was a family dispute that involved our off-duty deputy. She has been reassigned to desk duty pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation. The public can be assured that an investigation is underway and we will be transparent with the outcome.”
Per ABC13, Precinct 1 has not identified the deputy, and she has not been charged with a crime.
Ross expressed her dissatisfaction with how the police have handled the situation.
“There’s nothing to figure out,” Ross remarked. “You know who it is. They need to be knocking on her door like they would knock on anybody else’s door. That’s assault with a deadly weapon, and she’s in uniform.”
She also told Fox26, “I don’t understand why she don’t have an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or warrant out. If it was anybody else, they would’ve put a warrant out without even having to go to the police department. She should be charged like anybody else would.”
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