Deaf Man's Family Disappointed

The tasing of a Mobile man at a Dollar General store last month made international headlines and it probably will again after Mobile Police released findings from their internal investigation.

Chief Phillip Garrett believes the tasing of Antonio Love was justified but the arrest after was not. Love is deaf and mentally-disabled.

Police responded to the Azalea Road store after getting a call from the manager. He claimed that a man had been inside the restroom for an hour.

Six officers responded to the store that day but only the supervisor-in-charge has been put on administrative duty for making the call to arrest love. Lieutenant Kevin Rodgers is now facing a disciplinary hearing to determine if he will get in any trouble or even fired for his role that day.

Chief Garrett will take those findings to Mayor Sam Jones and they will decide the outcome.

Garrett held a press conference to discuss the case. "I'm sorry that we've had an incident involving Mr. Love. I wish we had not. I wish that the outcome had been different. The supervisor, who I do hold responsible, made a decision based on what was going on at the time. I don't agree with the decision."

Police have also released the names of the other officers involved.

Supervisor: Lieutenant Kevin Rodgers
Officer Joe Cotner (Police say Cotner was the officer who actually tased Love)
Officer Harry Milbrath
Officer Bryan Mims
Officer Carlos Walton
(we are still waiting for the name of the 6th officer)

The Love family retained a lawyer named Tommy James. He released this statement.

"Birmingham attorney Tommy James of the firm Morris, Haynes & Hornsby has been retained by the family of Antonio Love, the deaf and mentally challenged man who was pepper-sprayed and tased by Mobile police officers in the bathroom of a Dollar General store in Mobile. “I was only recently retained by Antonio’s family and have not yet been able to review the Internal Affairs investigation, the 911 tapes or the video surveillance tapes from the Dollar General store. However, Mobile Police have indicated that they are not going to voluntarily release the Internal Affairs investigation. We have requested the 911 tapes from the Mobile Police Department and they have refused to provide them to us even though they provided them freely to local media. We have also requested the
surveillance tapes from Dollar General and they have not yet responded to our request.”

“Antonio and his family are very disappointed with the findings of the Internal Affairs investigation. It is clear that what happened to Antonio should have never happened. He has never had any run-ins with the law and he was not a threat to anyone. Once Antonio realized that it was the police trying to get into the bathroom, he put up no resistance and yet police still tasered him three times. Even after discovering that Antonio was hearingimpaired and had a diminished mental capacity, the police still arrested and charged him.” “It is puzzling as to why the police were even called in the first place simply because a person was allegedly in the bathroom for too long and not causing any problems.

Another mystery is why the store manager or police did not simply use a key to enter the restroom. It is also interesting that it took six officers approximately fifty minutes to gain access to the restroom.” James stated that his investigation is in its very early stages and that the family would have no further comment at this time. “We are going to do everything that we can to gather all information and conduct a very thorough investigation. It is very important for us to obtain the Internal Affairs investigation, the 911 tapes and any surveillance tapes in and outside of the Dollar General showing the incident.”

The family has not made a final decision as to whether or not they are going to file a lawsuit in this matter. “I was retained to thoroughly investigate this matter and to find out for the family what really happened. The family has not made a final decision on whether they will file a lawsuit. We are just trying to get all of the facts as to what really happened to Antonio and why it happened and then we will go from there. However, we may be forced to file suit so that we can issue subpoenas to obtain the Internal Affairs investigation and other relevant documents because the Mobile Police are not willing to release this
information to us.”