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CHARLOTTE NC POLICE RELEASE BODYCAM FROM MARIJUANA ARREST | CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

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CRIME & COURTS


WATCH: CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG POLICE RELEASE BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE OF CONTROVERSIAL
ARREST

By Ryan Oehrli

Updated December 12, 2023 5:21 PM
 * 
 * 
 * 

 


Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police on Tuesday released body camera video of a Steele
Creek arrest that went viral and brought new scrutiny on the department.

Viral video captured by a bystander showed police officer Vincent Pistone
repeatedly hitting Christina Pierre in November as onlookers shouted for him to
stop. Police body camera footage showed the interaction leading to the viral
incident.

Police said as the viral video began circulating that Pierre and her partner and
coworker Anthony Lee were smoking marijuana at a bus stop, that Pierre “punched”
an officer in the face and that they found a gun in Lee’s bag. Both resisted
arrest, police said. Pistone dealt out “compliance strikes,” according to CMPD.
The department’s directives allow for that.

Click to resize

Whatever the circumstances, some community leaders took issue with what they
saw.

 

“My fear was that she was going to die there,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP
President Corine Mack said.



Police Chief Johnny Jennings acknowledged at a Nov. 15 press conference that the
video was not easy to watch.

Still, body camera footage would tell a more complete story than the viral
video, he said.

The footage — spread out over more than 30 videos — includes two officers first
approaching Pierre and Lee.

“You smoking weed?” one officer asks the two as they are sitting on a bench.
“You guys smoking weed?”



Pierre and Lee responded that they bought it at a smoke shop. CMPD’s briefing
video shows a burned joint collected as evidence. Pierre’s attorney, Lauren
Newton, told WFAE the two were smoking a legally purchased THC-A cigarette and
that police should not have bothered them. THC-A, sold widely at area smoke
stores, converts to Delta 9 THC — the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana —
when burned.

The situation escalates from there.

Other videos show backup arriving, an officer striking Pierre while she is on
the ground and witnesses giving statements, among other things.

The videos are on CMPD’s YouTube page.




WHY CMPD RELEASED THE VIDEO

North Carolina law requires that a judge approve the release of body cam
footage. Police filed a petition for that release, and Superior Court Judge
Daniel Kuehnert gave the green light on Nov. 30.

“The public has a right to see it,” the judge said.

The Charlotte Observer asked CMPD multiple times for the name of another officer
who reportedly returned a strike to Pierre’s face. At a Dec. 1 press conference,
the public affairs team’s Lt. Kevin Pietrus made clear that CMPD would not
provide it.



Pistone was “the centerpiece” of the viral video, and Jennings decided to
release his name because of that, Pietrus said.

“But really, that centerpiece stopped there,” Pietrus said. “For that reason,
that’s the only name that we’re going to release.”

The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office dismissed Pierre’s and Lee’s
charges late last month.

“After consideration of the body-worn camera evidence and the various recorded
accounts of police and civilian witnesses present, based on the totality of the
circumstances, the State does not have a reasonable likelihood of success at any
potential trial on this matter,” prosecutor Sheena Gatehouse wrote in Pierre’s
dismissal paperwork.



This story was originally published December 12, 2023 9:31 AM.

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CRIME & COURTS


WATCH: CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG POLICE RELEASE BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE OF CONTROVERSIAL
ARREST

December 12, 2023 10:13 AM


CRIME & COURTS


CHARLOTTE POLICE WILL RELEASE FOOTAGE IN VIRAL STEELE CREEK ARREST TODAY. WHAT
TO KNOW

December 12, 2023 6:30 AM

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