by SARAH THOMACK
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph Police Department released an extended video of a recent confrontation an off-duty officer had with a citizen, captured in a short clip which went viral on social media.
A spokesman for the St. Joseph Police Department says the extended video is being used as part of the investigation into the incident.
St. Joseph Police Capt. Jeff Wilson told reporters Wednesday there was more to the incident that took place before and after what was shown on the short TikTok video of off-duty Officer Brandon Harrison’s verbal altercation with a citizen.
Harrison has been relieved from official police duties and placed on administrative duty, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Wilson says, earlier on the day of the incident, a captain with the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force saw a vehicle and recognized it as one that had fled from him during a prior incident. When the captain tried to perform a traffic stop, the vehicle took off, ran multiple stop signs, and hit two vehicles as the driver attempted a high-speed maneuver, according to Wilson.
Wilson says one of the vehicles struck was owned by Harrison, who reported a hit-and-run. At about the same time, the occupants of the vehicle fleeing the Drug Strike Force Captain also called in to report a hit-and-run.
An officer arriving on the scene believed the vehicle to be the one involved in the hit-and-run. That officer notified both the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Captain and Harrison in an attempt to identify the vehicle.
When Harrison arrived on the scene, the officer was trying to get information about the vehicle and the man was “expressing his agitation in a loud manner,” according to Wilson. The man reportedly made what Wilson describes as “demeaning comments” toward Harrison. Wilson says it was only then that the man’s companion, identified as the driver of the vehicle, began filming the video posted to social media.
“We’re investigating this incident based on the actions of the officers, the words that the officer used when he initially responded there,” Wilson says. “We’re going to look into every detail of that as to why that took place and that officer will be held accountable, if we deem those actions to be inappropriate. I will just tell you that there will be some sort of action taken and accountability but it won’t be driven by the public, it will be driven by what we do procedurally on this department to discipline our officers and the purpose of our discipline is to make our officers better.”
Capt. Wilson says they hope to conclude the investigation and provide an update soon.
Click here to view the entire video. (Warning: video contains strong language, NSFW.)