Maryland Cop Pulls Taser And Gun, Pepper Sprays Black Embassy Officer In Uniform Before Arresting Him For Impersonation

By Nyameyke Daniel

Steven Alexander was walk­ing home with gro­ceries after a night shift as an Embassy of Qatar spe­cial police offi­cer in 2018 when a taser-drawn Maryland police offi­cer approached him and demand­ed that he show his cre­den­tials. When Alexander refused, the offi­cer point­ed his firearm at him and demand­ed that he get on the ground. Once he was on the ground, the offi­cer pep­per-sprayed Alexander before putting him in handcuffs. 

As a result, Alexander lost his job, had to fight crim­i­nal charges and suf­fered years of emo­tion­al dis­tress, his attor­neys said. He is suing Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Police and the police offi­cer for vio­lat­ing his rights and for exces­sive force

Hannah Nallo, one of Alexander’s attor­neys, said he has post-trau­mat­ic stress from what her client refers to as a “life-or-death scenario.”

“This inci­dent real­ly just changed the course of Steven’s entire life,” Nallo said. “He has a very hard time talk­ing about how the offi­cers real­ly almost took his life. Even though it was a few years ago, now, he remem­bers it clear as day when he talks to you about it is just like it just happened.”

M‑NCPPC Police Officer Mel Proctor said he saw Alexander walk­ing through a park­ing lot in the park with a hat that read “Special Police.” Proctor accost­ed Alexander, who told Proctor that he had no rea­son to stop him and con­tin­ued walking.

“The sub­ject con­tin­ued to refuse my com­mands to stop even after I told him that he was now being detained for inves­tiga­tive pur­pos­es,” Proctor wrote in the police report.

Proctor then asked for his cre­den­tials, he wrote. The offi­cer said he pulled out his Taser because Alexander was wear­ing a bal­lis­tic vest and “some­thing around his waist with pouch­es.” He drew his gun because he noticed Alexander had a gun hol­ster on his hip “pro­trud­ing for under his coat.”

“What are you going to do, shoot me?” Proctor said Alexander asked him.

Alexander’s lawyers said the man begged for his life.

The offi­cer put this gun back in the hol­ster, and he sprayed Alexander in his eyes because he start­ed to unzip his coat after Proctor told him not to, he wrote. He did not have his body-worn cam­era on dur­ing the interaction.

Alexander’s attor­neys said he was wear­ing his work uni­form, which includes body armor and a badge that reads, “Special Police Officer.”

While Alexander was deal­ing with the effects of the pep­per spray, Proctor slammed him to the ground by the hood of his coat, put his knee in the man’s back, hand­cuffed him and sprayed in his face, the law­suit says.

After restrain­ing Alexander, the law­suit says Proctor found Alexander’s “valid” work iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card and badge prov­ing his sta­tus as a spe­cial offi­cer at the Washington, D.C., embassy.

He saw Alexander’s badge hang­ing from his neck, the law­suit says, and police insignia on his shirt.

Proctor wrote in his report that Alexander had “numer­ous expired and one alleged cur­rent Special Police Officer Identification cards.”

“I attempt­ed to make con­tact with per­sons he alleged­ly works for only to get voice mails for peo­ple oth­er than the name he gave,” Proctor wrote.

Alexander was charged with resist­ing arrest, obstruct­ing a police offi­cer, fail­ure to obey a rea­son­able and law­ful order that a law enforce­ment offi­cer makes to pre­vent a dis­tur­bance to the pub­lic peace and imper­son­at­ing a police offi­cer. He spent 10 hours in jail.

Nallo said Proctor went to great lengths to ensure Alexander was ter­mi­nat­ed from his job, where she said he had a “stel­lar” record for nine years. Alexander’s super­vi­sor told him he could come back when he resolved the case, Nallo said.

On May 11, 2018, Prince George’s District Court Judge Bryon Bereano dropped all the charges against Alexander and crit­i­cized the pros­e­cu­tor for pur­su­ing the case.

Bereano said there was no one else present dur­ing the arrest, so no one was actu­al­ly dis­turbed. Bereano also not­ed that even though Alexander did not com­ply with the orders ini­tial­ly, he nev­er attempt­ed to run and try to remove or hide the hat.

Bereano said Proctor also tes­ti­fied that Alexander offered to give him the cre­den­tials after he asked a cou­ple of times, but the police offi­cer told him it was too late.

“On all four counts: The court finds that even look­ing at the light most favor­able to the state, which the court is sup­posed to do at this time, that frankly, Mr. State, don’t take this per­son­al­ly, this is not a case that should have gone for­ward,” Bereano told the prosecutor.

“This is ques­tion­able at best, a law­ful stop. Mr. Alexander did noth­ing wrong oth­er than walk­ing through a park after hav­ing worked a long, hard day, car­ry­ing his belong­ings from work and car­ry­ing his gro­ceries, and a police offi­cer who wasn’t fol­low­ing pro­to­col only exac­er­bat­ed the sit­u­a­tion by mak­ing it worse. And that was clear from his own testimony.”

Alexander was nev­er allowed to return to his job. The Qatar Embassy did not respond to requests for com­ment from Atlanta Black Star.

Alexander wished the inci­dent nev­er hap­pened. He was afraid to go pub­lic with the sto­ry out of fear that it may trau­ma­tize his family.

In his law­suit, he is seek­ing mon­e­tary dam­ages. A jury must decide how much Alexander would be award­ed. The state allows Alexander to get up to $400,000 in dam­ages from a police offi­cer. Lawmakers increased the cap to $600,000 start­ing in October 2021, but Alexander filed his case before the thresh­old was raised.

A Spokesperson for M‑NCPPC Police Prince George’s divi­sion LaKeisha Robinson said the agency could not com­ment on pend­ing lit­i­ga­tion. Records show Proctor received a com­mend­able ser­vice award in 2020.

Alexander’s attor­ney Jay Holland said the case is an exam­ple of the lack of account­abil­i­ty and bro­ken cul­ture in polic­ing that would allow an offi­cer to attack a cit­i­zen who was going along in his every­day life. The legal team hopes Alexander’s case and oth­er cas­es like it will pro­voke insti­tu­tion­al change in all police departments.

The M‑NCPPC Police is also at the cen­ter of anoth­er law­suit that pro­vides an inside look at the cul­ture of the depart­ment. In the law­suit a Black M‑NCPPC police offi­cer details inci­dents of racism and humil­i­a­tion that he was hand­ed down by his supe­ri­ors, who also dis­cussed incit­ing race wars and killing Black Lives Matter protesters.

“You don’t leave that at the door when you go out into the field. These are police offi­cers that are com­ing into con­tact with us as cit­i­zens and are com­ing into con­tact with Mr. Alexander,” attor­ney Veronica Nannis said“I think that it kind of does tie back to pos­si­bly the envi­ron­ment that they’re in and sort of what is not only tol­er­at­ed but encour­aged, appar­ent­ly, at Park and Planning.” This sto­ry orig­i­nat­ed at the atlantablackstar