Columbia Police Use Tazer on Naked Man on St. Patrick's Day (2019)

Columbia Police claimed they used a taser on a 32-year old man because he was “advancing” towards officers, but commenters on social media say videos, which have been circulating on Snapchat and Facebook, contradict the department’s story. Columbia Police Department spokesman Jeff Pitts told the Columbia Tribune that officers were called to the corner of Broadway and Eighth Street at approximately 2:10 a.m, March 17th, , 2019 in response to report of a “heavily-intoxicated” man walking around trying to start fights with people. Upon arrival, officers encountered 32-year-old Alexander C. Wells, who was completely nude, Pitts told the Tribune in an email. “Upon officers arrival, contact was made with the subject in question, who was completely nude,” Pitts said. “While officers were interacting with the subject he continued to advance towards them, so officers had to use the least amount of force to prevent any injury towards the subject, bystanders as well as officers” Videos that were circulated on social media sites such as Facebook and Snapchat appear to show Wells did not appear to be “advancing” towards the officers as the department initially claimed. The department hasn’t responded to requests for comment on the dependencies at the time of this release. Stay tuned for further updates. Columbia Tribune Stories Here: https://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20190327/video-shows-naked-man-retreating-before-being-tazed https://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20190318/naked-man-arrested-in-downtown-columbia Original Videos pulled from Snapchat and Facebook. Videos blurred because of nudity. If you have further videos of the incident, contact us at: [email protected] Stay tuned to Citizens For Justice as more updates become available: https://www.youtube.com/user/CFJComo https://www.facebook.com/cfjcomo/ https://paypal.me/citizensforjustice