88-year-old veteran says Micro police officer yanked him through window of car outside his house

Micro resident Ray Hail, 88, was charged May 16 with resisting a public officer. Hail alleges that Officer M.B. Creech used excessive force during the arrest.

"He was entirely wrong in what he did," Hail said Thursday. "He most definitely violated my civil rights."

The Korean War veteran said he has a bad leg and is most comfortable sitting in his car with the leg elevated. He said he was in the car parked in front of his house when Creech walked up that night.

"I said, 'Hey, I live right here,’ and I said, 'Is it illegal for me to sit here?'" he said. "That really infuriated him. He put his chest out, and he said, 'Don’t forget, you’re on my turf now.'"

Hail said Creech accused him of drinking – he said he doesn't drink – and told him to get out of the car. He said he told Creech about his leg and offered to take a breathalyzer test, but the officer insisted he get out and began trying to pull him out through the car window.

"He said, 'Get out of the car!' and I just happened to have my hand here on the steering wheel," Hail said. "He grabbed my clothes and tried to tear them off of me."

He eventually was pulled out of the car by a second officer and placed on the wet ground.

"I was shaking like a leaf," he said.

The incident left him with gashes and bruises on his left arm.

A woman who answered the phone at Creech's home on Wednesday declined to comment.

Police Chief T. Macon Jones also declined to comment, citing the ongoing SBI investigation. WRAL News asked for the incident report of the May 16 encounter, but he didn't provide it.

Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle said she and Jones asked for the SBI review on May 20. She said she's never been involved in an excessive force case with the Micro Police Department before.

There's no word on how long the investigation will take.