An Arizona man who called 911 to report that his child had been kidnapped was fired from his job after a video of him being handcuffed by responding police officers went viral.
Darnay Cockrell, 52, phoned emergency dispatchers at around 6am on August 6, stating that his four-year-old daughter had been taken by her mother from his Mesa apartment.
‘My baby momma had came over the night before and hadn’t seen her while, and she’s an addict, and I’ve been taking care of the baby for a while,’ Cockrell told 12News.
While he remained on the call, he said a dispatcher asked him to locate where the woman and child had gone. As he began to run downstairs, he said he was met by an officer.
Darnay Cockrell, 52, phoned emergency dispatchers at around 6 a.m. on August 6, stating that his four-year-old daughter had been taken by her mother from his Mesa apartment
According to audio from the officer’s body camera obtained by Fox10, Cockrell says that his daughter had been taken before the officer tells him to relax and that police were with the child.
The officer tells Cockrell to sit down, with the father responding that he won’t and that he has bad knees, according to the audio.
‘I don’t feel I should be getting on the ground when I’m the parent that’s calling and my kid has been taken,’ he says.
About five minutes later, another officer arrived at the scene and began to force him to the ground to handcuff him.
The distressed father said: ‘They tried to force me down, but the way it [was] looking, if I fall, I’m gonna hit my face so I just bent forward and put my knees down. [Then] he jumped on my back and handcuffed me.’
Footage recorded by a bystander shows Cockrell yelling in protest as both officers hold his hands behind his back and cuff him.
As Cockrell continued to refuse to sit down or get on the ground, another officer arrived at the scene and began to force him to the ground to handcuff him
Footage recorded by a bystander from the moment shows Cockrell yelling in protest as both officers held his hands behind his back and cuffed him
Before the release of the audio, Cockrell explained what was going through his mind at the time: ‘I’m nervous. I don’t know where my kid is at. I don’t know the situation, and I’m in a frantic place.
‘My heart is racing. I’m not feeling like I’m this father that’s supposed to be protecting his child.’
The Mesa Police Department stated that officers detained Cockrell due to his emotional state.
‘The man appeared upset as his daughter was just taken and displayed a high level of emotion, which is understandable; however, because emotions were so high, he was not obeying the officer’s commands and made comments that spiked concern for officer safety,’ the department said in a statement.
The Mesa Police Department stated that officers detained Cockrell due to his emotional state
Nicole Conner-Sharp has been booked into jail for disorderly conduct under the domestic violence law
Police eventually took the handcuffs off Cockrell and his child was returned to him safely, while the girl’s mother, Nicole Conner-Sharp, was jailed on suspicion of disorderly conduct under the domestic violence law.
After video of the incident circulated, Cockrell lost his job. The clip shows him ‘wearing the company’s shirt,’ according to a GoFundMe campaign launched by his neighbor.
‘They blamed it on cut backs,’ the neighbor wrote.
Since the incident, Cockrell has filed a complaint with the police department.
The department told ABC15 that the first responding officer was recently out of the police academy and only had two months on solo patrol duty.
In an internal investigation, the department did not find any policy violations but both officers involved in the handcuffing will receive additional training.