Source: Black News

Warsaw, NC — Investigation is now underway regarding the viral video of the incident that happened at a Waffle House in Warsaw, North Carolina last Saturday when a local police officer was seen putting a 22-year old unarmed Black man in a chokehold and slamming him to the ground.

Anthony Wall, who at the time has just came from a prom with his 16-year-old sister, was in a Waffle House restaurant when he reportedly got into a verbal argument with some of the employees.

When the police arrived, an officer immediately tried to arrest Wall. The video, which Wall himself posted on Facebook, shows the officer grabbing him by the neck and choking him. The officer eventually threw him to the pavement of the parking lot while still holding him by the neck. Wall could be heard repeatedly yelling, “Get your hands off of me!”

Wall told ABC 11, “I was pretty much trying to scream for air and trying to breathe because he was holding my throat and that’s when I got aggressive with him because you are choking me.”

While Wall takes full responsibility for the argument and being verbally abusive with the Waffle House employees that led to the police call, he still criticized the officer’s actions.

“Your hands should have never been around my neck like that if my hands were in the air,” Wall claimed.

Wall was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for the argument inside the Waffle House. Meanwhile, the officer whose identity wasn’t released yet has taken days off but is not on official leave.

Police Chief Eric Southerland said that the department is investigating the incident and the District Attorney’s Office will look into it as well.

The video, with nearly a million views, has yet again sparked protests.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund called the officer’s actions “grossly inappropriate” and appealed for the release of any relevant body-cam or surveillance footage.

“There’s no excuse for a police officer to choke someone, no matter what. Yet once again, a North Carolina officer is recorded brutalizing a black man. [The State Bureau of Investigation] must investigate the Warsaw PD and the officer should not remain on duty during that investigation,” the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina said in a statement.

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., asked for a Waffle House boycott on Twitter. She tweeted, “Family, let’s stay out of @WaffleHouse until the corporate office legitimately and seriously commits to 1) discussion on racism, 2) employee training, and 3) other plans to change; and until they start to implement changes.”