DeKalb deputies under fire for video of arrest

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Eight DeKalb County deputies are under fire after a video of a recent arrest.

Viewers who sent Channel 2 Action News the video believe the deputies were unnecessarily aggressive.

The edited video runs about 20 minutes in length.

Donovan Hall and his younger brother shot it on their phones on July 26.

Hall said DeKalb deputies showed up at his family's Ellenwood home at 1:30 a.m. He added the deputies loud banging and yelling woke them up.

"It was myself, my brother and my mom, my little sister was upstairs sleeping," he said.

In a clip from the video Hall can be heard saying, "Right now the cops are banging at the door it's about 1:30 in the morning."

The images in the video have led DeKalb County Sheriff's Office leaders to launch an internal investigation into the conduct of one sergeant and seven deputies.

About five minutes into the video, a woman believed to be Hall's mother screams, "I haven't done anything wrong."

Next, there is some tussling and deputies are seen coming in the home and Hall and his brother yell, "We are not doing anything wrong."

Hall spoke to Channel 2's Erica Byfield.

"Once I get back here I'm like 'Please stop,' the officer's gun butts me in the face and then I fall backwards," Hall said.

Some language the deputies are heard using on the video is so graphic we can't share it.

Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jeffery Mann didn't shy away from questions.

"The language that was used was unprofessional and I suspect there will be some disciplinary action," Mann said.

Mann told Byfield the deputies went to the house for a reason, they had a civil warrant for the arrest of Hall's mother, Natania Griffin.

Mann also stressed his deputies arrived at the home close to 1:30 a.m. and the family did not open the door until 2 a.m.

The warrant which Byfield requested said Griffin failed to pay a $1,000 fee.

"Fifteen (days) overdue, why would you come to my house with this unbelievable show of force?" Griffin said.

She added the deputies never announced who they were looking for.

"When they would not establish to what they wanted, we believed that they were at the wrong house because we would never think they would come arrest me for a civil fee," Griffin said.

Griffin has since paid the money she owed.

WSBTV