September 13, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
News
Seahawks’ Bennett Says He Feared Death by Las Vegas Police
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Seat-
tle Seahawks defensive
end Michael Bennett ac-
cused Las Vegas police
last week of racially mo-
tivated excessive force,
saying he was threat-
ened at gunpoint and
handcuffed following a
report of gunshots at an
after-hours club at a casi-
no-hotel.
Police said they’re in-
vestigating, but that Ben-
nett failed to stop for offi-
cers searching a crowded
casino for what they
believed to be an active
shooter just hours after
the Aug. 26 boxing match
between Floyd May-
weather Jr. and Conor
McGregor.
“I believe this case will
become completely clear
as all the available video
is reviewed for eviden-
tiary purposes,” Clark
County
Undersheriff
Kevin McMahill told re-
porters. “We’ll see very,
very clearly exactly what
happened on this inci-
dent.”
Bennett said on a Twit-
ter message titled “Dear
World,” that police “sin-
gled me out and pointed
their guns at me for do-
ing nothing more than
simply being a black man
in the wrong place at the
wrong time.”
McMahill
aired
a
lengthy video clip taken
from a police sergeant’s
body camera during a
search of the Cromwell
casino after a report
of gunfire at the Drai’s
nightclub. But he said at
least one officer who en-
countered Bennett didn’t
have his body camera on
at the time.
Bennett isn’t seen until
the very end of the clip —
being handcuffed as he
lies prone in a traffic lane
on Las Vegas Boulevard.
McMahill said that with
an internal affairs inves-
tigation just beginning,
he saw “no evidence that
race played any role in
this incident.”
Police and casino of-
ficials later attributed
the report of gunfire to
the sharp sound of vel-
vet rope stands being
knocked to a tile floor.
Bennett, during a brief
appearance Wednesday
at the Seahawks’ practice
facility in Renton, Wash-
ington, described the in-
cident as “traumatic” but
declined to go into specif-
ics about it.
“It’s a traumatic expe-
rience for me, my fam-
ily and it sucks that the
country that we live in
now sometimes you get
profiled for the color of
your skin,” Bennett said.
“Do I think every police
officer is bad? No, I don’t
believe that. Do I believe
there are some people
“
here to tell their story.”
Bennett, a 6-foot-4 de-
fensive end who has been
a leader of the national
anthem protests started
by former 49ers quarter-
back Colin Kaepernick,
said he was among sev-
eral hundred people run-
ning away.
In his Twitter mes-
sage, Bennett said he was
handcuffed face-down on
the ground after an offi-
cer held a gun to his head
saying he would blow his
head off if he moved.
“All I could think of was
‘I’m going to die for no
other reason than I am
black and my skin color
is somehow a threat,’” he
wrote. He said he thought
of his wife and children.
Bennett said he was
taken to the back of a po-
lice car “until they appar-
ently realized I was not a
thug, common criminal
or ordinary black man
but Michael Bennett a fa-
mous professional foot-
ball player.” He was re-
Do I think every police offi-
cer is bad? No, I don’t believe
that. Do I believe there are
some people out there that
judge people by the color of
their skin? I do believe that
out there that judge peo-
ple by the color of their
skin? I do believe that.”
“I’m just trying to fo-
cus on the game, focus
on the task at hand and
let everything take care
of itself,” Bennett said.
“But like I said this is a
tragic situation for me, I
hate to be up here at this
moment. There is a lot of
people who experienced
what I experienced at
that point, at that mo-
ment and they’re not
leased without charges.
Las Vegas police Officer
Jacinto Rivera said police
were checking for casi-
no and police body cam-
era video and written
reports. He said the de-
partment couldn’t imme-
diately verify Bennett’s
account or identify the
officers involved.
A video posted by ce-
lebrity news site TMZ
shows a view from a bal-
cony as a police officer
kneels on the back of a
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Bennett, who has been active in Seattle’s Black
Lives Matter movement, says the experience was
‘traumatic’ for him and his family
Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, pictured here at a July 29 rally in support of slain
mother Charleena Lyles, has accused Las Vegas police of racially motivated excessive force.
man who looks like Ben-
nett. Protests are heard,
including, “I wasn’t do-
ing nothing,” and, “I was
here with my friends.
They told us to get out
and everybody ran.”
Bennett’s
attorney,
John Burris in Oakland,
California,
confirmed
the words were Ben-
nett’s. The attorney said
he believed the 30-sec-
ond video clip showed
some of how his client
was treated.
“We think there was
an unlawful detention
and the use of excessive
force, with a gun put to
his head,” Burris told The
Associated Press. “He
was just in the crowd.
He doesn’t drink or do
drugs. He wasn’t in a
fight. He wasn’t resisting.
He did nothing more or
less than anyone in the
crowd.”
Burris said Bennett
waited to make public his
account of the incident
until after Burris con-
tacted Las Vegas police
last week by letter and
email, seeking police re-
cords of Bennett’s deten-
tion.
McMahill said he had
no knowledge of any let-
ter or email last week
from Bennett or Burris.
Bennett’s brother, Mar-
tellus Bennett, who plays
for the Green Bay Pack-
ers, posted an Instagram
account of a telephone
call he said he got from
Michael Bennett. He
said he heard fear in his
brother’s voice.
“The emotion and the
thought of almost losing
you because of the way
you look left me in one of
the saddest places ever,”
Martellus Bennett said.
Michael Bennett has
been one of the most out-
spoken pro athletes on
numerous social issues.
Last month, he held a
benefit for the family of
a pregnant black woman
who was fatally shot by
two white Seattle police
officers in June. Police
said the woman threat-
ened the officers with
at least one knife after
calling 911 to report that
someone had broken into
her apartment and sto-
len video-game consoles.
Advocates on Wednes-
day cited Bennett’s treat-
ment by police as an
illustration of troubled
race relations in Ameri-
ca.
Patrisse Cullors, a
co-founder of the Black
Lives Matter advocacy
group, called it “a tes-
tament to the police vi-
olence targeting black
people in the United
States.”
Cullors endorsed an
online petition calling
for Las Vegas police to re-
lease information about
what she called an as-
sault on Bennett.
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