In an exclusive video for the Daily Caller, firearms instructor Leon Spears broke down body camera footage of police officers confronting a suspect who stole a backpack with an Apple AirTag.
The video begins with a man notifying police that his backpack was missing and that he had traced it to a specific residence using an Apple AirTag. Police spoke with one of the residents at his front door, who told officers that his neighbors might have the bag.
Police then look inside the garbage bins at the side of the home and found several objects, including purses, stored inside. Spears said the officers had a right to search the property because they believed the suspects were disposing of stolen objects.
A woman then pulls up in the driveway in a vehicle and confronts the officers, telling them she lives at that house and that they have no right to search her brother’s trash without permission.
The video then shows an officer officer commanding the man, presumably the woman’s brother, to step out of the house after allegedly smelling marijuana inside. The man obeys and waits outside as officers enter the home searching for other residents. The woman appears to grab the officer with the body camera by the arm and can be heard telling them that her brother does not smoke weed. (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Firearms Trainer Leon Spears Breaks Down The Best Viral Cop Videos)
“Three major things: When the officer took the gentleman out, you can see how he put his hand right on his shoulder and kind of escorted him out. The gentleman was compliant,” Spears said. “But maybe he thinks something is going to go down, but the officer said, ‘Please sit right here.’ So he’s expecting the guy to be compliant. So I would have made sure I either have backup or I would have detained him from a distance. But make sure that he does not actually get a little squirrely.”
He said the police needed to “de-escalate” the situation with the woman, who had become a “problem” for them.
Body camera footage shows the sister telling officers they had no right to enter the home to search for marijuana and raising her voice with threats to call her “fucking lawyer.” The officers then direct her to put her hands behind her back and detain her.
“Y’all have no right to do this. It don’t smell like weed in there,” she says. She then tells the man, identified as Mario, to tell the officers they had no right to search the house without a warrant. The officers respond that they were not searching the home.
“If she had just had a better tone — she might disagree, but if she had a better tone and a better attitude — the officers would have treated her differently,” Spears said. “It is her interaction that has her in cuffs.”
Other officers then arrive at the scene. The woman continues screaming that officers had no right to enter the home, at which point one of the officers leads her to their vehicle and holds her against the back door. They then force her into the back seat and tell her she has been handcuffed for disobeying their commands.
The woman appears to talk to herself in the vehicle and then begins yelling as the officers presumably search her vehicle.
“You all don’t have the right to search my car!” she yells. “You do not have the right to search my car. On my son, I will be pressing charges. That’s on my son!”
She also claims that she cannot breathe, despite continuing to talk, and begins to cry.
Back at the house, an officer explains to the man that they had the right to enter the home with a search warrant application because they smelled marijuana. Spears commended the officer for explaining the incident. Officers eventually located the missing backpack inside the residence.
“The officers are doing a great job, and it’s a nice thing for community policing to actually explain to the person without overriding the person. So the officer is doing a great job. And again, surveying the scene and then securing the scene,” Spears said.
The incident ended with the resident placed under arrest for theft.