Video Shows Chickasha Police, Suspect In Violent Struggle

What should have been a routine arrest for shoplifting quickly escalated into a violent interaction between police and a suspect in Chickasha, Tuesday night.

According to the police report, officers were dispatched to a Walmart store after being told 38-year-old Charles Cozad had stolen several items and then left.

Eventually finding him inside the lobby of a nearby Quality Inn hotel, three officers began talking to Cozad. In the report, they said Cozad smelled like alcohol and was slurring his words. When they asked him to stand to be arrested, he ran.

Video from the officer’s body camera shows Cozad sprinting through a door into the indoor pool where he was tackled by two officers. The third officer wearing the camera can then be heard wrestling Cozad to the ground.

What happens next in the video is difficult to see, the body camera capturing the arrest, was knocked off the officer. But you can hear commands and see the officer seeming to strike Cozad multiple times with a baton.

“Put your hands behind your back! Put your hands behind your back!” the officer can be heard saying in between swings. “I can't! I can't!” Cozad can be heard saying while crying out.

According to the report, Cozad continued to struggle even hitting one of the officers, despite being held down by police. So one officer deploys a stun gun that can be heard at least three times. He even continued to struggle after he was placed in handcuffs.

One Chickasha PD lieutenant said police have had several run-ins with Cozad before but nothing like this. He's now charged with two counts of assaulting an officer, resisting and possession of stolen property. According to the report, the total value of the items was $101.28.