A video circulating on social media shows an encounter between a young Black man, his mother, and a white female police officer in Elk Grove, California. In the video, the mother is questioning the officer about why she is delaying presenting the traffic ticket to her son and waiting for backup.
In a 22-minute video that was live-streamed via Facebook on Sept. 13, Stacy Harvey-Slocum explains that her son Tobias Eagle was pulled over for running a stop sign just before he pulled into the driveway of their Northern California home. The officer allegedly asked Eagle whether he was on parole or probation and waited for backup before giving him a ticket. Throughout the video, the officer keeps her hand on her holstered gun while donning a Blue Lives Matter face covering.
Eagle, a 19-year-old college student, said he had just pulled up in front of the driveway of his mother’s home when he noticed a patrol car approaching him. “I come over two, three times a day to take care of my dog, see my sister and just help my mom,” Eagle explained this week to local station FOX40.
Harvey-Slocum said her son had already provided the officer with his driver’s license, insurance and registration for the car, and she repeatedly asks the officer why she will not give him the ticket.
“She said he ran a stop sign but kept questioning, asking if he’s on probation or parole,” the video shows Harvey-Slocum saying to the backup officers. “He said no. She refuses to run his information.”
When the backup first arrived, Harvey-Slocum recounted how the incident unfolded to the new officers on the scene.
She told the officers she and her husband Jesse Slocum came out of the garage of their home right after they realized their son was being pulled over. “She yells on the intercom, ‘Don’t you park your car right there. Move to the other side of the street,” Harvey-Slocum said.
“I told him immediately, take out your driver’s license, get your registration, and insurance. He has never had a police interaction before.”
“She comes out with her hand on her gun, I said, ‘Come stand by me.’ My son will not be another hashtag,” she said to the officers, explaining how she told him to get nearer to her for protection.
Harvey-Slocum then explained that after the officer said her son had run a stop sign, she asked the officer to give him the ticket.
“She just stood there. And then her hand was on her gun.” Again, she asked the officer to give her son the ticket and that they would handle it in court. But instead of providing the ticket, the officer called for backup.
One of the officers who arrived on scene as backup explained to Harvey-Slocum that “this is not an ordinary interaction.”
“How is this not ordinary?” she asks. “She pulled him over. Write the ticket. She was asking him if he was on probation or parole.”
“What’s not ordinary about that? That a Black man is not on probation or parole?”
“You can’t really recognize, like, the feelings that you have. I was kind of just blown back,” Eagle said to the station about being accused of being on parole.
She then tells the officer her son is a senior at Sacramento State University with a double major. “At 19 years old! That’s what he is,” she says. “He is my Black son,” she added as two more patrol cars pulled up. Eagle is set to graduate with a master’s in mechanical engineering next fall at the age of 21.
As the officers continue to suggest that Harvey-Slocum had escalated the situation, she stated: “We are in our pajamas. We are no threat to anyone. She’s the only one with weapons.”
“All we want is the ticket!”
A second 13-minute video live-streamed on Facebook shows a male officer who arrived on the scene as backup giving Eagle the citation. In the video, Harvey-Slocum recounts the incident to another officer a second time.
People on social media raised questions about the encounter. The Elk Grove Police Department said it is aware on the video and is in contact with the family.
Spokesperson Hannah Gray said the department had scheduled a meeting with the family at their request, but that the family canceled the meeting because they wished to proceed with the formal complaint process.
Harvey-Slocum expressed her concerns about the officer remaining on the force to ABC10, saying: “The officer is still out here, patrolling our neighborhood with a loaded gun, with the same mind frame, of her tattoos and that mask … that same prideful mind frame, so that means nothing unless officers independently are being held accountable. America is tired of it.”
She said on Facebook that the Elk Grove Police Chief Tim Albright and Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly contacted her to apologize for the incident.
