Rochester police have released Blue Light Camera footage showing the arrest of two men on Remington Street. The arrests of Jarvis and Travis Lewis became controversial because of cell phone video released on social media that showed an investigator kicking Jarvis Lewis as officers held him down on the street.
The reverse angle shown by the surveillance camera shows the officer was kicking a gun out of Jarvis Lewis's hand. Officers on the original cell phone video can be heard yelling that Jarvis has a gun. The video also shows neighborhood residents running up to the scene. Some of them are pepper-sprayed as they refuse police orders to get back.
An investigator was placed on administrative leave following the incident last Saturday. Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan says he'll be back on full duty tomorrow (Fri).
The chief says Rochester police officers did what they had to do to secure and disarm Jarvis Lewis...and she says that kind of thing isn't pretty. But the chief says the officers knew Lewis was armed, and she says officers used specific techniques that were called for to arrest him. The chief says Lewis might have chosen to pull his gun and he would have been shot by the arresting officers, so she's glad at the way things turned out. She notes that Lewis is a registered sex offender and was a suspect in the shooting of a Rochester woman. He's also a parole violator.
The gun taken from Lewis was later matched to shootings on Kohlman Street and on Dove Street.