Virginia Officer Charged with Assaulting a Black Man, Hired by Minneapolis Police Dept.

According to an article posted last month in the Minnesota Reformer, the Minneapolis Police Department has hired former Virginia officer, Tyler Timberlake, who was charged with assaulting a Black man while on duty in 2020.

On June 5th, 2020–less than 2 weeks after George Floyd was murdered by former MPD officer Derek Chauvin—Timberlake can be seen on body cam footage deploying his stun gun multiple times on La Monta Gladney, an unarmed Black man. During the incident, Timberlake hits Gladney in the head with his Taser and, after Gladney falls to the ground, the officer kneels on his back and neck to restrain him as Gladney screams for someone to help him.

Timberlake later told investigators that he believed Gladney was another man, who was wanted for violent crimes.

Timberlake was fired, arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. However, he was later acquitted and reinstated to his position, before quitting and moving to Minnesota.

Gladney ended up settling an excessive force lawsuit against Fairfax County and Timberlake for $150,000.

Timberlake, who was still in training at the time of the article, was hired by the MPD on January 9th, but Chief Brian O’Hara told the Reformer that the “individual in question will not be deployed or serve in a law enforcement capacity in any way until we conclude a full investigation into this matter.”

O’Hara continued, “We will get to the bottom of this and take whatever measures are necessary to ensure we are always hiring officers who meet our standards and that we are ultimately placing only the most qualified and competent police into the service and protection in the city of Minneapolis.”

Contact Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and let him know what you think of Timberlake working for MPD 👇🏽

Email: police@minneapolismn.gov

Phone: 612-673-2735

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