A 63-year-old man who helped found an organization to improve relations between the black community and the police in Bristol was tasered by police after he was mistaken for a wanted man. And it was all caught on video. Police are now investigating how it was that police got to the point of firing a Taser at Judah Adunbi outside his home on Jan. 14.
The video shot by a neighbor shows how Adunbi refused to identify himself to the police officers, who repeatedly asked him for his name. “I’ve done no wrong,” Adunbi can be heard saying in the recording. “Leave me alone.” Police then tried to prevent Adunbi from getting into his home and fire the Taser that hit the grandfather in the face. He quickly fell to the ground.
“I felt that was it. Because of the way I fell back. The way I fell backward on the back of my head. I was just paralyzed. I thought that was it,” Adunbi said. “I thought they were taking my life.”
Adunbi described the humiliating experience of having been taken to the hospital with a Taser still dangling from his face. “They then removed most of the loose wires. They lifted me back on my feet. They tried to pull the one from my face off and realized they couldn’t,” he said.
At first, police charged Adunbi with assaulting an officer but the charges have since been dropped. Still, he said it was difficult for him to understand what actually happened. “It’s a little distasteful in my mouth,” Adunbi said. “To know that I’m one of the founder members of the Independent Advisory Group, which was created some years ago in order to improve better relationship between the Afro-Caribbean community and the constabulary, and to be treated like this it’s difficult.”
