Footage of police officers in a Baltimore suburb aggressively pulling a Black passenger from a vehicle during a traffic stop went viral late last week, and now police in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, have denied any wrongdoing.
TikTok user Heather Janney filmed her boyfriend 23-year-old Antoine Wedington’s arrest on Monday, Oct. 19, after she was pulled over on suspicion of driving 45 mph in a 30 mph zone in Anne Arundel County.
During the traffic stop, Wedington refused to show his ID, and the video below begins as police start to remove him from the vehicle by force. Maryland is not a “stop and identify state,” which allows the passenger to refuse to show their identification.
“All right, so, she’s going 45 in a 30, they pulled her over for a traffic ticket. How is it lawful for them to get the identification of the passenger?” Wedington asked, facing the camera, which is being held by Janney from the driver’s seat.
Officers then reached into the car in an attempt to pull Wedingon from the vehicle.
“Antoine, please!” Janney said. “Please stop!”
“They’re not trying to let me get out of the car myself bro!” Wedington said. “You took your time with the investigation, I can’t take my time and get out of my car?”
“No,” an officer responded.
“My child’s in the car,” Wedington said, before turning to kiss Janney.
“Do you understand that you are under arrest?” an officer asked.
“Do you understand that they’re pulling on me like they’re dogs? I’m a human being. I kissed my family goodbye.”
The video of the arrest has been viewed more than 4 million times. In response to the national attention, the Anne Arundel County Police Department released a statement about the arrest. “We felt it necessary to provide necessary contextual information which was missing from the video in order to provide clarity to our community members and those who viewed the video,” the statement said.
Police said Wedington was wanted on two warrants: one for failure to appear in court, and a retake warrant from the parole commission. Officers said they recognized him during the traffic stop. He was charged with resisting arrest and transported to the county detention center. Police say that through an alert placed on vehicle’s tag they had learned his identity before he was removed from the car.
“Mr. Wedington had refused and was very adamant about that, which was within his rights to do so,” Anne Arundel police spokesman Lt. AJ Gardiner said of Wedington not showing his ID. “He wasn’t arrested because he didn’t produce his ID. He was arrested because he was [identified as] Antoine, and he didn’t comply.”
The law varies by region and from state to state on whether a passenger for whom there is no probable cause to believe has committed a crime has to produce ID when asked by an officer during a traffic stop. In one of the more recent rulings to tackle the issue, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year in U.S. v Landeros that officers in an Arizona case from 2016 had no legal right to extend a traffic stop because one passenger refused to show his identification.
