The roughly nine minute video, which was posted on Facebook, shows the officer point his weapon toward the passenger, even as the passenger repeatedly asks the cop to put his gun away, as his hands are clearly visible.
"Why are you still pointing the gun at me, bro?" the passenger asked. "My hands are right here."
According to the Campbell Police Department, the pistol was drawn after the passenger, helping the driver look for her "additional paperwork," made an "unexpected movement towards the bottom of the seat," which caused the officer "to perceive a threat and draw his handgun."
As the officer called in for back-up personnel to assist him, the driver of the car can be heard asking him to put the gun away in favor of a taser gun. The officer did not comply.
"Don’t you have like a taser, or something, that you could use before you use [the gun]?" pleaded the driver. "You’re telling him to relax, but you have a gun on him."
"It is never a comfortable position to have a gun pointed at you, regardless of whether it is an officer," the department’s press release stated. "Unfortunately, the length of time that the officer’s gun was drawn lasted much longer than normal based on his location … If the same situation would have occurred closer to back-up officers, it would most likely have been resolved much sooner."
Gary Berg, the public information officer for the police department, noted that the first five minutes of the encounter captured by the body camera showed a "cordial conversation" between the occupants of the vehicle and the officer before the friendly environment soured.
Although the responding officer was outside of his jurisdiction, as a "peace officer in the State of California" the officer still had the authority to pull over the car.
The statement also detailed that once the backup officers arrived on the scene the passenger apologized for his frustration. However, both travelers wound up being hit with a citation before being allowed to leave the site of the stop.
