Brad Parscale, who was demoted from his job as President Donald Trump’s campaign manager in July, was suddenly tackled and slammed to the pavement by Fort Lauderdale, Florida, police after his wife said he threatened suicide.
Police body-cam footage released Monday shows Parscale, wearing only a baseball cap and a pair of knee-length shorts, sitting on his porch as officers arrive at his home on Sunday afternoon. Parscale began to walk slowly toward an officer at the end of his driveway, saying, “She’s lying, I’m your friend.”
The officer said, “Alright, relax. What’s going on?” Parscale then set down a beverage can on the sidewall of his pickup and began to quietly explain a dispute with his wife, who had told police that he had a gun and threatened to kill himself. At least two other officers then rushed toward Parscale from behind the pickup with one yelling at him to “get on the ground.” The 6-foot-8 Parscale, still shirtless and holding nothing in his hands, then began to turn toward the officer who was speaking, only to be grabbed by the knee, lifted up and thrown onto his back in the street.
About four second elapsed from the first command to “get on the ground” to an apparently confused Parscale being tackled. After being thrown down, he said, “Take it f***ing easy. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do anything.” Police then roll Parscale over and cuff his hands behind his back as he continues to say, “I didn’t do anything.” The clip ended with Parscale, 44, being pulled to his feet and again saying, “I didn’t do anything.”
Parscale’s wife, Candice Parscale, reportedly called police from a neighbor’s house and said he was armed and had locked himself in his home. Police said they negotiated over the phone for Parscale to come out.
He was sitting on his porch without a visible weapon at the point the body-cam footage began. Police said Parscale’s wife fled the residence after he threatened suicide and loaded a gun in front of her. She told police she heard a gunshot from the home shortly thereafter, then heard Parscale “ranting and pacing around the residence and the dog barking frantically.”
Officers seized 10 firearms from Parscale’s home – including six handguns, two shotguns and two rifles – police said. Parscale was taken to a hospital and detained for a psychiatric evaluation under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows a person to be involuntarily confined if they are deemed to pose a risk to themselves or others. Parscale hasn’t yet been charged with a crime. Police said he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, and they observed bruises on his wife’s arms, which she attributed to an altercation with her husband a few days earlier.
Officer Matthew Moceri said he tackled Parscale because Parscale was bigger than him, wasn’t complying with his commands and had pockets that “could easily conceal a firearm.”
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Parscale remains a beloved member of “our family.”“We are ready to support him and his family in any way possible,” Murtaugh added.
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