TOLEDO, Ohio — Police are conducting an internal affairs investigation into the arrest of a central Toledo man during a traffic stop.
According to a Toledo police report, officers received an alert from a license plate reader regarding a possible stolen vehicle. Police located the vehicle - a red Dodge Ram - at the intersection of Detroit Avenue and Delaware Avenue at approximately 4:30 p.m. on April 11.
The officer initiated a traffic stop at the intersection of Post and Albion Streets and ordered the driver, later identified as Brandon Upchurch, to exit the vehicle. According to the report, Upchurch shook his head and refused multiple times. When additional officers arrived on scene, Upchurch shut the vehicle off, but allegedly did not step out of the vehicle when officers ordered him to.
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The officer then retrieved their K9 partner from the rear of the police cruiser and continued giving verbal orders for Upchurch to step out of the vehicle, police said in the report. After multiple commands, Upchurch exited the vehicle and allegedly did not obey police commands.
Upchurch began walking away from police, the report claimed. The officer ordered Upchurch to get on the ground and said they would use the K9 unit on the suspect if he did not comply. The officer claimed in the report they believed Upchurch would flee the area on foot and posed a risk to officer safety due to the "unknown involvement of weapons", and decided to send the K9 unit to apprehend Upchurch.
The K9 "apprehended" the suspect on the right arm, police wrote in the report, and took Upchurch to the ground.
According to the report, the officer then used a "head hair control technique" to prevent Upchurch from getting up until another officer could take the suspect into custody.
Once Upchurch had been arrested, officers said they observed the suspect vehicle's license plate was "misshapen and angled down" and had been incorrectly transcribed by the license plate reader; moreover, the license plate on the vehicle Upchurch was driving was not the license plate belonging to the allegedly stolen vehicle officers were investigating.
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Police also arrested a second person, who had been in the vehicle with Upchurch at the time of the traffic stop.
Upchurch was taken to the hospital where he was treated and cleared, then transported to the Lucas County Jail. Upchurch was charged with resisting arrest, a second-degree misdemeanor; and obstructing official business, also a second-degree misdemeanor.
Toledo police confirmed to WTOL 11 the incident was under investigation. The nature of the investigation, as well as additional details, were not made available.
Body and dashcam video from the incident are included below:
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