Surveillance footage from a 7-Eleven store in Whittier captured the violent arrest of a transgender man by a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department earlier this year.
The Feb. 10 incident occurred in the parking lot of the convenience store on Mills Avenue at around 12:30 p.m.
Footage of the arrest shows an LASD deputy, identified by the Los Angeles Times as Deputy Joseph Benza, pulling into the parking lot directly behind 23-year-old Emmet Brock’s black Honda Civic, blocking him in.
The deputy is then seen exiting his cruiser and approaching Brock as he was getting out of his Honda. Audio of the arrest was captured by the deputy’s body-worn camera.
“Come here. I just stopped you,” the deputy is heard saying.
“No, you didn’t,” Brock replies as he turns toward the entrance of the store.
“Yeah, I did,” the deputy replies as he grabs Brock and quickly takes him down.
“Oh, my god. What the f–– is happening,” Brock is heard saying.
As Brock continued to struggle on the ground, screaming for help the entire time, saying that Benza was going kill him and that he was not resisting, the deputy is seen on top of him, holding him down and punching him in the head. The altercation lasted around three minutes before the 23-year-old schoolteacher was cuffed and put into the deputy’s cruiser.
Brock’s attorney, Thomas Beck, said the deputy’s official reason for pulling his client over was an air freshener hanging from the vehicle’s rear-view mirror but that he believes the deputy became enraged after the 23-year-old flipped him off as he was driving by. The deputy then followed Brock until he pulled into the 7-Eleven parking lot.
“He says, ‘I pulled you over,’ and my client turns to him and said, ‘No, you didn’t.’ (The deputy) already has his hands on him, he takes him to the ground forcibly, injuring his own hand, the deputy’s own hand doing that, which he’s trying to blame on my client, and started pummeling him,” the attorney told KTLA 5’s Carlos Saucedo. “The video speaks for itself. He was pounding at the kid’s head. He was diagnosed with a concussion later after he was released. This guy committed multiple felonies against my client, and he’s gotten away with it so far.”
Beck also claims that the sheriff’s department is not investigating the incident, saying the department has not contacted him, nor have they contacted Brock, who has since lost his teaching job because of the charges filed against him.
“I mean, if there’s an investigation that needs to be conducted, you would talk to the people who would give you the information you need. They didn’t do it,” Beck said.
After he was arrested, Brock was taken to the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station where he said he was humiliated when he told staff that he was a transgender man and they asked to see his genitals before deciding which holding cell to put him in.
Brock is now charged with two misdemeanors, resisting arrest and battery on an officer, though the 23-year-old and his lawyer claim it was Deputy Benza who used excessive force, which is why they wanted to release surveillance footage of the arrest.
The Sheriff’s Department issued the following statement Monday morning regarding the incident:
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department takes all use of force incidents seriously. The Department is investigating the information and allegations brought forward by Mr. Brock and his attorney. Unfortunately, we cannot comment any further at this time due to the pending litigation in this matter,” the statement read.