Raleigh officers seen in video repeatedly kneeing driver during arrest

The Raleigh Police Department is investigating the use of force by two officers after a cellphone video shows them kneeing a man several times during an arrest Tuesday.

Braily Andres Batista-Concepcion was pulled over on Navaho Drive by officers investigating a series of hit-and-run incidents, according to arrest warrants.

A Ford van and a Toyota sedan were damaged in the 3500 block of Wake Forest Road, and a utility pole on Wingate Drive also had been hit, according to a warrant.

"We just got run into, and the guy took off. Twice, he ran into us twice and took off," a man in the van told a 911 dispatcher.

"I swerved to try to keep them from hitting me," a woman in the Toyota told a 911 dispatcher, noting the car came speeding out of the parking lot of an Extended Stay America hotel near the intersection of Wake Forest Road and St. Alban's Drive.

"They hit me, and then I stopped at the red light, and then they looked in the mirror and were trying to back up to hit me again," she said. "I don't know what was on their minds."

Police said that, a short time later, an officer spotted a vehicle matching the description from the hit-and-run incidents driving erratically on Navaho Drive and initiated a traffic stop. The driver ignored repeated commands to place his hands on the wheel, so the officer ordered him to get out of the vehicle, police said. He then failed to follow the officer’s commands, and officers used force to remove him from the vehicle, police said.

The video shows two Raleigh police officers trying to pull a driver out of a car after a traffic stop. One of them knees the driver in the ribs three times and grabs him by the neck because he won't let go of the steering wheel, and the second officer punches him in the back to finally pry him loose.

After the officers take the man to the ground outside the car, the video shows the second officer kneeing the man in the back at least twice to get him over onto his stomach to handcuff him.

"I don't remember much, but from what I remember, I was telling the cop to stop," Batista-Concepcion said Wednesday evening. "He brought me out. He was beating on me, grabbing me, choking me on my neck, and then I blacked out and went to the hospital and stuff."

He declined further comment, saying his attorney told him not to talk publicly about the incident.

But Kerwin Pittman a community activist, said Batista-Concepcion would hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Gardens in Raleigh.

"As is the case with all uses of force, the Raleigh Police Department is reviewing this matter," police said in a statement.

The department plans to ask a judge to allow the public release of footage from the officers' body-worn and dashboard cameras.

Batista-Concepcion, 22, of 3584 S. Beaver Lane in Raleigh, was charged with two counts of hit-and-run with property damage, failure to report an accident, driving while impaired, resisting a public officer, possession of up to a half-ounce of marijuana and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

The last charges relate to a 16- and a 17-year-old in the car at the time and reference that he allegedly was impaired and been involved in a couple of crashes.

Batista-Concepcion was given a $6,000 bond and was ordered to have no direct or indirect contact with the two teens.

Anyone with information about Batista-Concepcion's arrest or any other hit-and-runs involving his vehicle, described by 911 callers as a white Honda Accord, is asked to call 911.