Sandy MaloneLowell, MI – The Lowell Police Department released bodycam on Friday that proved an officer who cleared dead possums from the roadway had done nothing wrong despite bizarre allegations that he swore at a motorist and kicked a baby possum (video below).
The police department came under fire on social media after Lowell resident Zachary Myers filed a complaint and publicly accused a police officer whom he said had cursed at him and kicked an injured baby possum three times before moving it out of the road, WZZM reported.
Myers said he spotted the two possums lying in the middle of Alden Nash Avenue SE on March 16 and stopped to help them.
He said he put his car in the middle of the road to block other approaching vehicles from running the animals over again, WZZM reported.
Myers said someone had stopped and offered to bring supplies to trap the animals so they could be taken to a wildlife treatment facility.
A Lowell police officer on routine patrol encountered Myer’s stopped vehicle blocking traffic and stopped to check out the situation, WZZM reported.
Bodycam video showed the officer stopped his vehicle and approached Myers, who was standing next to his vehicle.
He told the officer he didn’t have his phone with him and wanted to call his roommate to see if he could bring something, but the officer just walked past him and began assessing the situation, the video showed.
Bodycam video showed he approached the animals that looked dead and used his foot to shove one of them to the side of the road.
Then he picked the other possum up by its tail and moved it out of the road.
Another car going the opposite way stopped to talk to the officer, bodycam showed.
“We’re stopped in the middle of the road for possums,” the officer told the driver.
“Yeah, I saw that,” the driver replied. “Is he alive? Did he get hit?”
“I don’t know,” the officer replied with a hint of incredulity in his voice, the video showed. “Probably.”
The driver’s reply could not be heard but the officer responded.
“Put down a possum?” the officer asked.
He told the driver that he could be on his way, the video showed.
“I feel like I could drop kick it,” the officer said. “But the thing is with these possums, too, is that they’ll sit there and play dead.”
“Yeah, you don’t know what it’s doing,” the driver in the stopped car agreed.
“He’s not dead but… he’s probably like ‘hey, where’s my mom,’” the officer said.
The officer seemed perplexed about what to do with the possums.
“I’m not going to put that thing down,” the officer insisted. “I mean, I’ve got a shovel.”
A moment later the officer walked back to his patrol vehicle and began applying a copious quantity of hand sanitizer, the video showed.
“Unf-king real,” the officer muttered in the video.
The police department conducted an internal investigation into the incident after the complaint was filed but said it hadn’t found the accusations levied by Myers to be true, WZZM reported.
“While our officer used inappropriate language at the scene, it was only in the presence of a fellow deputy and after the driver had departed. The officer has been reprimanded for his language,” the Lowell Police Department said in a statement.
Lowell police said it had determined the officer hadn’t done anything wrong during the possum stop, WZZM reported.
“We have submitted our report to the Kent County Prosecutor for an independent review,” the statement continued. “The Lowell Police Department takes all community complaints seriously and investigates them to ensure we are providing fair and responsive service.”
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Obscene Language:
Holly Matkin
