SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) – Southfield police officials are refuting claims of wrongdoing after a family alleges officers with the department and guards at the jail used excessive force last month, leaving Clint Willis paralyzed.
Chief Elvin Barren on Thursday morning held a press conference to release body camera and jail cell footage amid reports the family plans to file a $20 million lawsuit and hold protests this weekend.
Southfield police responded to a domestic violence call on April 5 at a home on Mulberry Street, near 10 Mile and Berg Roads. Authorities say Willis assaulted his mother that day, shortly after being released from a mental health facility.
Footage released Thursday shows Willis walking down the street as police arrived. The video shows him hitting a female officer in the head, unprovoked, leaving her with a “significant laceration” near her eye. Another officer then tackles Willis to the ground.
Several other officers responded to the scene, eventually arresting Willis without further incident.
Footage from inside the Southfield Jail – which is run by Allied Universal Security, not Southfield police officers – shows WIllis having an argument with guards in a hallway. He is eventually taken through a doorway and to a cell.
The guards wrestled with Willis, trying to get him through the door several times. After the guards’ struggle, the door is eventually locked and footage shows Willis walking to the other side of the cell, before running head first into the plexiglass wall with his shoulder lowered.
An attorney for Willis’ family says his “neck was broken during the attack” and that he is paralyzed from the neck down, as a result.
“Given the body camera footage released, it appears to contradict the family’s account of what happened,” WWJ’s Ryan Marshall reported from Southfield.
Chief Elvin Barren said during Thursday’s press conference he was releasing the footage for full transparency.
"That way if the family and friends still want to protest, certainly protest. But now you have the information that is centered around your loved one,” he said.
“You will see no police brutality. You see any force used by Southfield Police Officers and even Allied Universal was appropriate under the circumstances. Any injuries suffered by Mr. Willis are self-inflicted injuries," Barren said. "I stand with my officers. I stand with Allied Universal as well."
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