Anger Rising Over PG County Man's Injury After Arrest: Report

GLENN DALE, MD — A Prince George's County man suffered partial paralysis after being arrested last month by police, and now the community wants answers, according to a report.

WTOP reports that members of the community gathered Monday night to talk about relations with law enforcemen tafter the Oct. 17 arrest of Demonte Ward-Blake of Oxon Hill.

The arrest followed a traffic stop. Prince George's County Police Chief Hank Stawinski defended the man's injury as just a "horrible accident," according to the report.

The Prince George's County Chapter of the NAACP called for an independent investigation into the traffic stop. The NAACP says dashcam video they reviewed showed Ward-Blake cooperating, and that his injury happened off camera.

The video of the traffic stop reportedly shows a calm interaction until Ward-Blake took his hands off the steering wheel when his phone rang. The officer pulled his gun out and Ward-Blake cursed at the officer, and then everything calmed down until the situation suddenly escalated once again for an unknown reason, according to an NBC Washington report.

The investigation had to rely entirely on the dashcam video and testimony because officers weren't wearing body cameras.