Had Harrisburg police officer Marc Howell not been a cop he would doubtless be going through severe felony prices for shoving a person into oncoming site visitors in the midst of an intersection Saturday evening — an incident captured on video that has since gone viral, sparking outrage amongst viewers.
Not surprisingly, Howell has a historical past of extreme power allegations — in addition to a DUI arrest — however none of that has affected his employment in Harrisburg, the place the 30-year-old man continues to put on a badge.
The newest lawsuit was filed Tuesday by a Black man named Travis Watkins who stated he was standing on the street about 30 ft away from a number of Harrisburg cops in 2023 who have been aggressively detaining a person for preventing when he yelled out, “Hey, ease up!” to the cops.
That was when Howell, who was not concerned within the preliminary detainment of the person preventing, rushed as much as him and yelled, “Again up!” whereas pepper-spraying him within the face, in accordance with the lawsuit.
“Get out of the road or I’ll spray once more,” threatened Howell, in accordance with the lawsuit which states that Watkins had nothing to do with the struggle aside from being a witness.
Watkins, who was blinded by the pepper spray, then felt one other cop seize him by the wrist, telling him, “motherf_cker, cease resisting!”
That cop, Harrisburg police officer Esteban Restrepo, then grabbed Watkins by his locs and started pulling on them to stroll him towards the jail transport car.
Two different Harrisburg cops recognized as John Does within the lawsuit then grabbed Watkins arms and began pulling him in numerous instructions whereas yelling, “cease resisting!”
Watkins ended up jailed on prices of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and public drunkenness which stay pending, in accordance with Pennsylvania on-line courtroom data.
“Harrisburg Officer Marc Howell’s use of extreme power in opposition to and retaliation in opposition to Plaintiff for yelling out, “Hey! Ease up!” as a number of different officers arrested and roughly cuffed one of many combatants,” states the declare filed by Pennsylvania lawyer Leticia C. Chavez-Freed.
“Officer Howell’s act of spraying Plaintiff instantly within the face with Mace from underneath 5 ft away and with out warning Plaintiff — who had neither dedicated nor was suspected of getting dedicated against the law, who offered no hazard, who was not underneath arrest, and who was thirty ft away from and never interfering with the officers coping with the melee — was an extreme use of power underneath clearly established legislation.”
Watch the latest viral video beneath.
Second Lawsuit
Howell was listed as a defendant in one other lawsuit filed by a person named Jonathan Cody in 2023, claiming he was abused, pepper-sprayed and jailed on false prices in 2022 after he was nearly struck by a patrol automotive pushed by Howell.
The lawsuit states that Howell had become a pedestrian crosswalk which led to Cody hanging the patrol automotive to maintain from being hit. Howell then turned defensive and ordered Cody to face on the sidewalk to attend for extra cops.
When the opposite cops arrived, Howell informed them that he was driving his patrol automotive when Cody struck his automotive with an object as he was driving previous him.
The declare additionally says the responding cops started mocking Cody for the best way he spoke, accusing him of being homosexual, and sarcastically debating whether or not he was a “he” or a “she.”
The cops then attacked him, shoving him right into a rock wall, then punching, kneeing and elbowing him as they arrested him for disorderly conduct, after which he spent the evening in jail.
Then as soon as they positioned him within the automotive along with his legs shackled and his palms cuffed behind his again, the cops then pepper sprayed him in his eyes to cease him from complaining about Howell’s driving.
Court docket data point out there was a “voluntary dismissal” in Cody’s lawsuit in January which suggests he selected to withdraw the grievance, which means there was a doable settlement however that’s not said in courtroom data.
DUI
Howell was a rookie cop recent out of the police academy and nonetheless in his probationary interval on the Harrisburg Police Division when he was arrested on DUI prices in 2019, in accordance with Penn Reside.
Pennsylvania state troopers stated Howell, who was 24 years outdated on the time, agreed to take a blood check the place he measured a blood alcohol content material of .132 which is considerably larger than the .08 authorized restrict.
However native media by no means adopted up on the arrest, and there’s no hint of that arrest in Pennsylvania on-line courtroom data, indicating he was allowed to enter into an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time offenders which might have wiped the arrest from their report.
“A minimum of two different native officers have been charged with DUI lately, together with a former Pennsylvania State Police spokesman and Camp Hill’s former police chief,” Penn Reside reported in its preliminary article on Howell’s arrest.
“Each officers have been accepted into their respective county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition packages, for first-time offenders, which finally wiped the non-violent crime off their data.”
Newest Incident
The newest incident passed off Saturday in downtown Harrisburg the place residents have been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at native bars and golf equipment.
A video recorded by a lady named Marly Taylor reveals a younger man who had simply been kicked out of a nightclub, standing on the sidewalk at a avenue nook when an worker of the membership approaches him, telling him to “get the f_ck off my property” — regardless that it’s clear he’s standing on a public sidewalk.
That was when Howell got here charging in direction of him and shoved him into the road the place he was almost struck by an oncoming automotive.
“It simply appears very unprofessional and the automotive was near hitting his head and it simply appears like if it had been extra of a push that dangerous issues may have occurred,” Taylor informed WGAL.
The person, who has been recognized as Carter Burch, was charged with drunken disorderly conduct. Harrisburg police declare he was concerned in a struggle earlier than the incident.
However Burch’s sister, Isabella, informed native media there was by no means a struggle, solely a “misunderstanding” from every week earlier when a bouncer assumed he was harassing a lady who was really their buddy.
“Final weekend, once we have been in Nocturnal, my brother was with me and my buddy, and my brother leaned down to speak to my buddy, and [the bouncer] stated that appeared like a ‘sticky state of affairs,’” she informed WHP-TV.
“The bouncer grabbed him for that state of affairs of speaking to my buddy” and “threw him throughout the bar,” ordering them to go away the institution.
“We got here again as a result of they stated that they misinterpret the state of affairs, and so they by no means stated we have been banned or something,” Isabella stated.
Nevertheless, the bouncer acknowledged Burch and shoved him down the steps, Isabella defined.
She stated her brother was standing outdoors the membership, ready for his sister and associates to retrieve their coats when the membership worker confronted him, ordering him off the sidewalk.
And that was when Howell got here charging, shoving Burch into the center of the busy intersection. His sister will be seen working into the intersection to guard her brother.
“You’ll be able to’t actually see it within the video a lot, however seeing it in individual — his head was so near that tire,” she informed WHP-TV. “That’s why you’ll be able to see me within the video run out as a result of I used to be terrified that his head was going to get smashed by a tire.”
