In response to a press conference held by Mr. Jamal Jones and his legal team, the Clovis Police Department held a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Clovis Police Chief Curt Fleming spoke at the conference in response to allegations made against the police department by Jamal Jones and his legal team.
“Much of that information that was shared with you was blatantly inaccurate”, said Fleming.
He then went on to state that he would be providing the “facts” of what occurred almost a year ago on May 3, 2021 in a traffic incident on Ashlan avenue.
Body cam footage of the incident was released to the public and was shown at both this Clovis PD press conference as well as the press conference held by Jones’ legal team.
Fleming states that Jones was ”known to be affiliated with a gang” and had prior arrests. The prior arrests meant that Jones was not allowed to be in passion of a weapon, which he had placed near his left leg next to the front seat of his car as seen from the body cam footage.
Jones was initially stopped for tinted windows, and upon running the registration for the vehicle, officers found that his vehicle, which he claimed he had recently bought, was not properly registered with the DMV.
Upon reexamination of Jones and his vehicle, one of the officers noticed a handgun next to Jones’ left leg in between his seat and the door of the car.
The officers then asked Jones to step out of the vehicle after opening his door.
Upon stepping out of the vehicle, Jones seemed stuck in his seatbelt which was tied behind the driver’s seat.
Confusion ensued between him and the officers. He could not physically be released from the vehicle and his face became stuck on the seatbelt.
After an officer sat in the back seat of the car to release the seatbelt from the back of Jones’ driver seat, Jones again resisted moving to the ground, a resistance Chief Fleming pointed out by showing Jones’ feet thrusting up against officers who were attempting to push him down onto the asphalt.
Jones was then tased by an officer and only after repeated ”hand strikes” which Fleming mentioned officers had used on Jones, did Jones submit to the ground.
It was then that while on the ground Jones continued to resist and a K-9 unit was used. The K-9 unit bit and attached at the leg of Jones and from claims made by his legal team, debilitated him into walking with a cane.
After Jones was detained and handcuffed, the K-9 unit was released from his leg.
Within two minutes according to Fleming, the wound on Jones’ leg was dressed by the officers on the scene and within roughly half an hour Jones was transported to Clovis Community Medical Center for proper medical attention.
This was a supposed cause for contention among Jones and his legal team as they claimed he received zero medical attention at the scene.
Fleming remains that because of the prior history the police have had with Jones, the presence of a weapon and the “tight quarters” with which they had to work with they decided to command Jones with orders to dispatch from his vehicle.
In Jones’ press conference, his legal team questioned police officers’ use of force in addition to making allegations of a racially motivated statement by one of the officers that included details of Jones’ skin and reasoning behind why the K-9 Unit would not detach.
Chief Fleming stated that he had viewed body cam footage of interaction between officers and Jones at the hospital and sternly responded to the allegation of that comment:
“That statement was never said. I’ve never heard that statement. And I can tell you that if that ever occurred at my department, the officer would be fired on the spot.
That is not tolerated, and this was the first that I’ve heard of that comment today.”
Nonetheless, Jones’ legal team does plan to sue the Clovis PD and the City of Clovis.
In their statement, they provide, “Jamal had emergency surgery, narrowly escaping amputation, and now walks with a cane.
Jamal was inhumanely mishandled.” They later state that Jones “suffers from PTSD and, since the incident, is on a higher dose of medication.”
A photograph of the weapon located in Jones’ car and a mugshot of Jamal Jones can be found in addition to body cam footage of the incident. The body cam footage can be found under “Jamal Jones K9 Press Release”: https://we.tl/t-4Mk7tClnsk?src=dnl