NBA star Sterling Brown Tasered in arrest | Police apology as video shows

NBA star Sterling Brown Tasered in arrest | Police apology as video shows

An NBA player has received an apology from the Milwaukee police chief after his arrest over an alleged parking violation in January escalated into the use of a stun gun.

Sterling Brown, a Milwaukee Bucks player, said the incident was "an attempt at police intimidation" and that it "shouldn't happen to anybody".

Police chief Alfonso Morales said some officers had been disciplined over the incident as the force released body-camera footage which showed how an interaction over an illegally parked car rapidly escalated.

It began at around 2am on 26 January in a Walgreens car park when Brown walked out of the store to find an officer standing by his car asking him for his driver's licence.

The video shows Brown telling an officer not to touch him as he approaches the passenger door of his car.

"Back up! Back up!" the officer yells. "For what? I ain't did nothing," Brown responds.

Brown eventually does show the officer his driver's licence.

Brown says he has no problem with the officer's questions and the officer responds that he touched him "because you got up in my face".

"I got up on your face? Really?" Brown responds in disbelief.

The mood worsens when Brown, surrounded by four officers, is asked to take his hands out of his pockets.

Almost immediately a scuffle ensues, with the officers swarming over Brown and one yelling "Taser, Taser, Taser!"

Brown can be heard groaning on the ground before he tells someone off camera: "They tasered me for no reason."

The video represents another setback for a department that has tried to rebuild its image and relationship with Milwaukee's black residents after several high-profile cases of police misconduct.

Police did not identify the races of the officers, but most of the officers in the video appeared to be white.

Brown was never charged with anything.

In a news conference on Wednesday Mr Morales said: "The department conducted an investigation into the incident, which revealed members acted inappropriately and those members were recently disciplined.

"I am sorry this incident escalated to this level," he added.

Fred Royal, the president of the NAACP in Milwaukee, said he "didn't see anything that would warrant" a stun gun being used on Brown.

"I find it disturbing that an officer would incite an argument over a parking citation," Mr Royal said.

Last year, Milwaukee paid $2.3m (£1.7m) to settle a lawsuit over the death of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man fatally shot by a police officer after the officer roused him from a park bench.

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