Commissioner Kevin Davis said police are investigating the arrest of a man Sunday night at the Mosaic Nightclub and Lounge in Baltimore.
Davis held a media briefing on the incident Thursday afternoon.
He said three officers responded to the Mosaic nightclub at the Inner Harbor's Power Plant Live! around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, after club security officers requested police support with a dispute that happened inside the club.
LIVE on #Periscope: Baltimore Police Media Briefing on the Arrest of #AaronWinston https://t.co/eSIdrcvlTD
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) February 25, 2016
While officers were escorting a patron involved in the dispute from the club, a man now identified as 24-year-old Aaron Winston, approached officers to ask about his friend. The officers on duty reported Winston as being "disorderly" and "interfering" with the patron being escorted, Davis said.
Davis said officers deemed Winston's approach "unlawful" and used force to take him to the ground where he was arrested. A crowd began to form as the arrest took place and police requested backup. Davis said Winston was then escorted out of the club and walked to the central district station.
Winston sustained an injury during the arrest and was given medical attention, according to Davis. A police investigation then began.
"It's clear to all of us, we need to find out what happened" -@CommishKDavis #AaronWinston
— Katrina Bush (@katrinafromABC2) February 25, 2016
The commissioner says he just spoke to Winston's mother and assured her investigators are going to find out what happened to Aaron
— Katrina Bush (@katrinafromABC2) February 25, 2016
Winston's family members contend that police used excessive force during his arrest, breaking his arm. They say Winston was a former colleague of the officer he approached that night, and went up to him to ask a question.
"If you're out a club and someone is asked to be escorted out that you came with, you're going to be concerned about it and if you know the person that is escorting them out, you're going to do what anybody would do. It's perfectly reasonable," J. Wyndal Gordon, the family attorney, said.
While Commissioner Davis said there was always the intent to file charges once Winston was released from the hospital, Gordon told ABC2 the charges coming days after the incident is no accident.
"We still want to know why is it that this amount of force was used on a basically non combative, fully compliant, unarmed citizen and we don't have any answers for that. All we have is charges that smack of retaliation," he said.
Winston's charges include second degree assault and resisting arrest.
"We're in criminal defense mode so we have to defend against these charges and have him exonerated of these bogus charges. Then we will invest whether or not to pursue some other legal action that I expect we probably will," Gordon said.
Winston's family said he is out of the hospital and resting at home. His mother, Renee said she heard what the commissioner said Thursday.
"I understood his place but he still didn't answer my question. Why was my son brutally and aggressively injured," Renee said.
"It's just too many things about this that's not matching up," Winston's father, Edward, said.
Here for the press conference for #AaronWinston pic.twitter.com/iLGh1RNvdS
— ShaiVaughn Crawley (@ShaivaughnC) February 25, 2016
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