Shocking body camera footage caught the moment an Oakland police officer tasered an unarmed father-of-two as he struggled in the water.
Deontae Faison, 35, was initially accused of driving with expired tags on his vehicle on April 5, 2024, in the lead-up to the incident which has left him in a coma and prompted his family to file a federal lawsuit.
East Bay Officer Jonathan Knea has been accused of violating district policy and Taser manufacturing guidelines after he was seen in bodycam footage deploying his stun gun and firing at Faison as he struggled in an estuary, according to the San Francisco Standard.
The incident began when Faison and a white friend grabbed some food at a local Wendy’s, where Knea first spotted that the truck had expired tags.
Deontae Faison, 35, a father of two, has been unresponsive since East Bay Officer Jonathan Knea tased him on April 5, 2024
Faison and his friend then traveled to the park to eat their meal, where Knea confronted them.
The officer could be seen in the body camera footage pointing a handgun at Faison, who held his hands up, as Knea told him to get out of the vehicle and sit on the bumper.
Knea then asked him about the expired tags, but Faison told him he was not driving the car and gave the officer a fake name.
He had felt that he was being treated differently than his white friend, whom the lawsuit says was not questioned about anything even though she owned the car and also provided a fake identity, Law & Crime reports.
The suit claims Faison started to get nervous about being ‘harassed in the park’ for roughly 20 minutes as Knea questioned him and ran Faison’s alias through the Alameda County database, from which he found no results.
The officer then called for backup and threatened to request a fingerprint technician to identify him, and Faison became ‘scared for his life,’ according to the lawsuit.
Body camera footage from the incident showed Faison with his hands up inside a truck as Officer Knea pulled out a handgun and told him to get out of the vehicle
Knea continued to deploy the Taser as Faison was wading in knee-deep water, leaving the wire attached to Faison’s back
He then started running toward the estuary as Knea yelled at him to ‘get down’ and stop running.
The officer was then seen pointing the Taser at him.
The officer then deployed the stun gun at Faison’s back from a distance, without ‘any announcement and failing to establish any communication,’ the suit says.
Faison then collapsed, but managed to stumble into the estuary.
By the time he was about knee-deep, the suit says, Knea again deployed the Taser until he drained the battery, leaving the wire attached to Faison’s back.
The victim then struggled in the water for more than 30 minutes calling for help, according to the lawsuit, before he eventually fell face first into the estuary and began taking on water.
He then lost consciousness and floated toward the opposite shore, where officers pulled his body onto land.
But in the approximately 17 minutes before paramedics arrived, police did not administer CPR and did not tell paramedics Faison had been tasered, the lawsuit states, per the San Francisco Chronicle.
Faison lost consciousness and floated toward the opposite shore, where officers pulled his body onto land
An Alameda County sheriff’s deputy, who was called to the scene, later noted that Faison was in the water for nearly 40 minutes.
He also noted that cops tried to call Oakland police, firefighters and the Coast Guard for help but ‘all water rescue resources were unavailable’ at the time.
The suit also says Knea ‘failed to communicate to hospital personnel’ that Faison had been stunned multiple times ‘in an attempt to conceal the true nature of what happened to him and promote the false narrative that Deontae had simply drowned.’
Hospital staff only learned he was Tased the day after he was admitted, when medical personnel discovered the puncture wounds from the device.
‘When they saw him flailing, trying to avoid drowning, begging for his life and for help, these people casually sat there on the beach looking at it as if [it] were some type of, form of entertainment or amusement,’ civil rights attorney Adanté Pointer said at a news conference Tuesday, Mercury News reports.
‘The officers’ deliberate indifference to Deontae’s life is appalling,’ Pointer said. ‘They stood there for over half an hour watching him struggle for his life.’
Faison now continues to require the use of a feeding tube, and cannot move his eyes or limbs
The lawsuit, filed against Police Officer Jonathan Knea, the East Bay Regional Park District and Alameda County, now claims that Knea violated department policy by using a Taser on a person who is in the water – particularly salt water – due to its conductivity.
Tasers can cause pain, loss of muscle control, elevated heart rates and breathing difficulties.
But the East Bay Regional Park District only discourages – does not strictly prohibit – cops from deploying a Taser ‘on individuals whose position or activity may result in collateral injury’ including individuals ‘located in the water,’ according to KTVU.
It also accuses officers on the scene of lying in their report that Faison was armed at the time, and claims deputies concealed evidence by turning off body camera audio and by disposing Taser components and Faison’s clothing.
The suit further claims that Knea knew that his use of the Taser was causing Faison peril, even verbally stating, ‘He is not going to make it.’
His family said he was unable to attend his son’s high school graduation and 18th birthday
But police have previously claimed Faison is a convicted felon who had a warrant out for his arrest.
Court records obtained by Mercury New show he was on probation after pleading no contest in a 2021 robbery case, but that probation appears to have been revoked in early 2023.
It is unclear whether it remained revoked when Knea confronted Faison that day.
Still, Pointer told KTVU, Knea did not know any of Faison’s history when he stopped him, saying the officer ‘escalated this situation.
‘It’s either submit or die,’ he said. ‘They used potentially deadly force for a minor traffic stop.’
Faison now continues to require the use of a feeding tube, and cannot move his eyes or limbs, according to Mercury News.
His older son, also named Deontae, turned 18 in June and graduated from high school, but his father wasn’t there to see it.
‘His dad has never missed a graduation. His dad has never missed a birthday. One of the biggest birthdays, one of the biggest celebrations, he wasn’t there and it’s not fair,’ said the boy’s mother, Teyona Davis.
‘The people who are supposed to protect m son, I can’t even trust, because look what they did to his dad.’
The younger Deontae added that his father’s coma ‘just derailed all of our lives’.
‘I can’t go to the park. I can’t play basketball. It’s very hard on all of us,’ he said.
