A Columbus police officer faces possible suspension for pointing a Taser at a shackled inmate in an emergency room examination area.
Officer Toni Howard was served Tuesday with a notice of suspension for violating police department policy regarding use of force, city officials confirmed to The Dispatch. Police Chief Oscar Lewis will present his recommendation before the city council in closed session on Oct. 3, and councilmen will have final say on Howard’s punishment.
The Dispatch could not confirm what suspension length Lewis will recommend, but Howard is still on active duty.
Howard’s body camera footage, to which The Dispatch obtained access through an Open Records Act request, shows the officer driving a Lowndes County Adult Detention Center inmate to the Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle emergency room on Sept. 11 for a medical check. At the ER, the inmate was denied treatment because there wasn’t an apparent medical issue, and he was ultimately taken back to jail.
The inmate, identified in the video as Tyshawn Hudson, 37, was arrested earlier that day for trespassing, disobeying a police officer and for an outstanding Mississippi Department of Corrections warrant.
The Dispatch has viewed the raw footage of the video and expects to receive a version to publish online today that will have any legally protected information redacted.
The video
In the video, Hudson launches into a profanity-laced tirade against Howard as she’s driving him to the hospital. He accuses her of being disrespectful toward him and wanting to shoot him. Hudson also claims he has federal agents watching him to keep him safe from her.
“If a (expletive) wasn’t watching, you’d murder me,” he says. “Shoot me right here in the street and leave me. That’s the s*** that be on your (expletive) mind. You can tell by your (expletive) attitude toward me.”
At the hospital, two male officers meet Howard and Hudson in the parking lot and proceed to the lobby. Once in the lobby, Hudson — whose hands are cuffed behind his back and feet are shackled — continues his verbal assault, calling Howard a “silly ass lady,” a “retarded ass b****” and made multiple references to the officer not wearing a wedding band.
On the way to the examination room, Hudson keeps saying he wants Howard “away from me.” He also keeps telling the two male officers Howard wants to shoot him.
During the ordeal, Howard says very little, other than occasionally telling the inmate to “shut up” and assuring him he would return to jail. She doesn’t verbally threaten him.
The video shows Hudson entering the exam room and sitting on a table. Two CPD officers and two nurses are in the room with the inmate, and Howard is standing in the doorway, when Hudson starts claiming he hit his head and has a concussion.
Howard begins telling the nurses the circumstances of Hudson’s arrest when Hudson starts yelling argumentatively at her. Howard, about 15 minutes into the video, is shown walking up to Hudson, saying “Stop right now,” and pointing her Taser at him for a few seconds before lowering it.
Hudson looks at others in the room and says, “See what I’m talking about,” when Howard points the Taser at him.
At one point after the incident, Howard tells a doctor at the hospital of Hudson: “He’s got that, ‘I’m a man’ mentality, so he’s gonna disrespect me because I’m a female.”
After receiving the medical release paperwork, Howard — with a male officer in the front seat — drives a markedly calmer Hudson back to the jail.
Once there and out of the vehicle, the inmate tells Howard, “You’re gonna pay for this s***.”
Department policy
According to the CPD’s Taser use policy, which The Dispatch also obtained, officers are required to issue a verbal warning when drawing their Tasers to alert the suspect and others in the area. It also says a Taser may be used “when verbal dialogue has failed to bring about the subject’s compliance, and the subject has signaled an intention to actively resist the officer’s lawful efforts to make an arrest.”
Tasers are not to be pointed at a suspect’s head or genitals.
Howard, previously a law enforcement officer in West Point, has been with CPD since December 2015, city records indicate.
Hudson pleaded guilty last year to one charge of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. In May 2016, he was sentenced to one year of house arrest, followed by four years of post-release supervision.
However, Hudson has not reported to a corrections officer since April.
He has a hearing on the revocation of his suspended sentence set for November and could face four years in prison.
Hudson was also convicted on one count of sale of cocaine in 1998.
Reporter Isabelle Altman contributed to this article.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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