HAMPTON, Va. – Lawrence Fenner, 32, is now telling his side of the story after he claims he was beaten by Newport News Police during a traffic stop on June 21.
Fenner, who says he still has anxiety, now plans on suing the city and the four officers involved.
The Newport News man looked away and wiped away tears as the cell phone video of his arrest played out in his lawyer’s office in Hampton. Fenner says he relives those moments over and over in his head.
“I got to go to therapy cause of this,” he said. “It’s just so much. I could have died.”
The video was shot by a bystander the night of the arrest in June. It shows Fenner being dragged out of his car by police during a traffic stop.
Fenner said he was kicked, punched and tased by officers after he refused to get out of the car. He said he didn’t want to get out because he was afraid.
“Every day I see things happen on social media and as well as the news,” said Fenner. “I would never have thought in my life that it would happen to me. I feared the cops since I was young.”
Police said they pulled Fenner over for speeding and for having plates that didn’t match the registration.
Days after the incident, Police Chief Steve Drew defended the four officers saying they followed protocol and used knee strikes and tasered Fenner twice to arrest him.
“I don ‘t believe Mr. Fenner was beat up,” Drew said in June. “I believe officers had to react to his actions. If Mr. Fenner would have stepped out of that vehicle, we would have checked that vehicle and he would have been on his way.”
But Fenner and his lawyers argue otherwise.
“This is a very serious case,” said Fenner’s lawyer Amina Matheny-Willard. “What happened to him should not happen to anyone ever.”
Matheny-Willard sent the notice to file the civil suit Monday morning. They said they plan on file it by the end of the year, or early next year.
Fenner said he doesn’t want anyone else to go through what he did and hopes to hold the officers accountable.
“So many of us dying due to these types of situations,” he said. “It was emotional, and I could’ve died. I can’t stress that enough. I could’ve died.”
The police department’s spokesperson said they cannot comment because of the pending lawsuit.
Five charges were recently dropped against Fenner. He pleaded ‘no contest’ to three other charges, including assault and battery, that could get dismissed in two years for good behavior.
