He called 911 to report his daughter missing. Then he lost his job.
An Arizona man called 911 to report his child had been kidnapped and was fired after a video of him being handcuffed by police officers went viral.
Darnay Cockrell, 52, called 911 around 6 a.m. on Aug. 6 to say his 4-year-old daughter had been taken from his Mesa apartment by her mother.
“My baby mama had come over the night before and hadn’t seen her in a while, and she’s an addict, and I took care of the baby for a while,” Cockrell said. 12News.
While he was on the phone, he said a dispatcher asked him to locate where the woman and child had gone. When he started running downstairs, he said he was greeted by an officer.
Darnay Cockrell, 52, called 911 around 6 a.m. on Aug. 6 and said his 4-year-old daughter had been taken from his Mesa apartment by her mother.
According to audio from the officer’s bodycam, obtained by Fox10Cockrell says his daughter had already been taken away before the officer told him to relax and that police were with the child.
The officer tells Cockrell to sit down, but the father responds that he won’t and that he has bad knees, the audio shows.
“I don’t think I should be lying on the floor when I call as a parent and say my child has been taken,” he says.
About five minutes later, another officer arrived on the scene and began pushing the man to the ground to handcuff him.
The tormented father said: ‘They tried to force me, but the way it happened [was] If I fell I would hit my face, so I bent over and put my knees on the ground. [Then] He jumped on my back and handcuffed me.’
Bystander footage shows Cockrell screaming in protest as both officers hold his hands behind his back and handcuff him.
As Cockrell continued to refuse to sit down or lie down on the ground, another officer arrived on the scene and began forcing him to the ground to handcuff him.
Footage captured by a bystander shows Cockrell screaming in protest as both officers hold his hands behind his back and handcuff him.
Before the audio was released, Cockrell explained what was going through his mind at the time: “I’m nervous. I don’t know where my child is. I don’t know the situation and I’m panicking.
“My heart is racing. I don’t feel like I’m a father who should protect his child.”
Mesa police said officers detained Cockrell due to his emotional state.
“The man appeared to be upset that his daughter had just been taken and showed a lot of emotion, which is understandable. However, because emotions were running so high, he disobeyed the officer’s commands and made comments that raised concerns for the officers’ safety,” the department said in a statement.
Mesa police said officers arrested Cockrell due to his emotional state
Nicole Conner-Sharp has been booked into jail for disorderly conduct under the Domestic Violence Act
Eventually, police removed Cockrell’s handcuffs and his child was safely returned to him. The girl’s mother, Nicole Conner-Sharp, was jailed on suspicion of misconduct under the Domestic Violence Act.
After a video of the incident circulated, Cockrell lost his job. The clip shows him “wearing the company shirt,” according to a GoFundMe campaign launched by his neighbor.
“They blamed it on budget cuts,” the neighbor wrote.
Since the incident, Cockrell has filed a complaint with police.
The department said ABC15 that the first officer to arrive on the scene had recently graduated from the police academy and had only been on solo patrol for two months.
An internal investigation by the department has found that there were no policy violations. However, both officers involved in the handcuffing will receive additional training.