A Mesa College police officer is on administrative leave while school officials look into footage that appears to show the officer point his gun at a videographer recording him after a traffic stop, an official confirmed Thursday.

The incident apparently happened within the first two minutes after the cameraman approached. The encounter is documented in a video posted Wednesday on the YouTube channel of “The California Citizens Watch.” In one video, a person describes the group as “First Amendment auditors.”

The incident happened Wednesday just off campus, after the officer pulled over a vehicle for a traffic violation he’d witnesses on campus, a San Diego Commmunity College District spokesman confirmed.

College district officials issued a statement noting that “the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.”


“The SDCCD takes any incident like this very seriously. We will not comment on the incident until that internal investigation is concluded,” the district said.

A roughly eight-minute recording of the encounter starts as the cameraman walks up to the officer’s vehicle.

In the footage, the officer approaches the videographer and asks why he is filming, and also questioned him about an item in his hand. The videographer apparently has two cameras, one of them a GoPro attached to a stabilizing or attachment device that looks like a short, thick black pole.


The videographer refused to put down the GoPro and the deputy reached for his gun, prompting the videographer to shout “Don’t you unholster your weapon.”

On the video, the officer reached toward his gun roughly 30 seconds after he first spoke to the videographer.

The officer again says he does not know what item is the videographer’s hand, and tells him to put it down.

“It’s a camera. You know it is,” the videographer shouted.


Seconds later, as the videographer continued to protest, the officer pointed his gun toward the videographer and ordered him to “lower that thing right now.”

A second officer appears on the scene, and the cameraman put the GoPro down.

At one point, the first officer picks up and moves the GoPro, to the protestations of the videographer. At one point, the videographer shouts, “What’s your name, what’s your badge number, tyrant?”

Later, the officer said, “You can’t delay me from doing my duties.” The videographer replies, “I wasn’t. You confronted me.”


Other videos on the group’s YouTube channel show cameramen encountering police or security guards around San Diego.


teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT