He Wasn’t Even Driving: Trooper Drags Former D-I Basketball Player Through a Shattered Window by His Dreadlocks
Tedrick Washington Jr. went from sitting in the back seat of an SUV to becoming the focus of a disturbing police encounter captured on camera.
On Aug. 19 in Blytheville, Arkansas, the former Division I basketball player was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a high-speed police pursuit, according to WKRC. An Arkansas State Police trooper initially clocked the SUV traveling 82 mph in a 60-mph zone. Police said the driver accelerated to speeds reaching 130 mph before officers stopped the vehicle.
What happened after the chase is what has people talking.
Video circulating online shows an officer approaching the SUV and breaking a rear window with a baton after ordering Washington to get out. Washington, seated in the back, appears reluctant to crawl through the shattered window. The officer grabs Washington by the wrist and by his dreadlocks before pulling him toward the opening.
The officer then punches Washington in the face.
According to the officer’s account, Washington resisted attempts to remove him from the vehicle and appeared to “posture up,” causing the officer to believe he was preparing to strike. The officer said that prompted him to punch Washington with a closed fist. He later reported striking Washington again after the struggle continued on the ground.
“I told Washington several times to crawl out the window without success, so I grabbed his left wrist and a handful of his hair and began pulling him in an attempt to persuade him to crawl out with my assistance, which he still refused to do,” Trooper Theodore Henderson wrote in his report, obtained by WCAX.
Washington’s background makes the footage even more jarring. According to ESPN, he previously played college basketball at Southeast Missouri State, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
But there’s one detail that shouldn’t get buried beneath the chaos of the traffic stop: Washington was a passenger in the vehicle.
The actual driver, Adonerus Johnson, is facing multiple charges, including reckless driving, felony fleeing in a vehicle and driving while intoxicated, according to KAIT 8 News. Officers said Johnson tried to flee and did not comply with instructions, leading one officer to use his Taser during the arrest.
Washington was also charged with obstructing governmental operations and resisting arrest.
Authorities have maintained that the force used during the encounter was justified. Still, the video raises questions about whether the trooper’s use of force was excessive, which continues to fuel public debate as footage of Washington being pulled and punched circulates online.
