Keller City Council scheduled a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss a controversial police traffic stop and complaints of excessive force that have led to a federal lawsuit.
On August 25, Dillon Puente was driving to his grandmother’s house when Keller Police Sgt. Blake Shimanek pulled him aside and accused him of making a wide turn.
The City of Keller released dashcam and body camera video of the incident on Wednesday.
Shimanek can be heard on the video asking Puente why he closed his window and acted ‘suspiciously’.
Seconds later, Puente was in handcuffs.
Then Puente’s father Marco arrived and started recording video on his cell phone.
“Hey, go,” Shimanek said to him.
“That’s my father,” Dillon Puente said to the officer.
“You are about to be arrested for blocking the lane if you don’t park and get out,” Shimanek told Marco Puente.
The dashcam video showed that he was not blocking the lane at all and had stopped next to the curb.
Anyway, Marco Puente parked in the street and walked back to the scene, still recording, and stood on the sidewalk across from his son and Shimanek.
The sergeant ordered his backup officer, Ankit Tomer, to arrest Marco Puente “for blocking the roadway”.
“This man is arresting me for just standing here,” Marco Puente said as the two officers threw him to the ground.
Then the situation escalated even more. Tomer Pepper shot Puente in the face.
“I’m not even doing anything,” said Puente.
The officers decided to put Dillon Puente to prison for making a wide turn, and his father for resisting arrest and interfering with the police.
Marco Puente repeatedly complained about the pepper spray, said he could not breathe and asked for medical attention.
“I’m choking on my own snot,” he said. “Wipe it (my face) with my shirt, please.”
But it was more than 15 minutes later when medics met him at Keller Prison and he got help wiping and blushing his face.
“My reaction is still the same,” Marco Puente said in an interview on Thursday. “I don’t know why I was arrested for filming there, except he just didn’t like it.”
Two days after the incident, Puente said Keller’s police chief apologized, agreed to drop all charges and even refund his son’s fine for making a big turnaround.
“He met me, shook my hand and offered me a formal apology,” said Marco Puente.
The chief relegated Sgt. Shimanek as an officer.
Marco Puente has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court, citing the officers Shimanek and Tomer.
The lawsuit alleges that Shimanek was targeted by Dillon Puente, 23, because he was a young Latino and he falsely believed he had drugs in his car. No drugs were found.
“I don’t think he needs to interact with the public at this point,” said Puente’s attorney Scott Palmer. “Maybe a desk job to really think about his actions, because they have consequences.”
Palmer’s partner James Roberts agreed.
“They didn’t do anything to help him after using the pepper spray on him,” said Roberts. “They knew he was in pain. They were able to help him and they did nothing.”
The lawyers said the agents’ own videos are their best evidence.
Keller Police Chief Brad Fortune did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Mayor Armin Mizani posted a message on the town’s webpage saying that the police “must work continuously to strengthen standards” and that the city council would hold a special meeting at 6pm on Tuesday.
“I hope to share more information with the residents after that discussion,” said Mizani.