A Long Beach man accused of attacking a police officer with his bicycle claims a video and a bystander’s account show he was the victim of excessive force when two officers stopped him for riding without a required bike light.

Solomon Brooks, 31, has been behind bars in lieu of $1 million bail since June 3, when police took him into custody on suspicion of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon by allegedly throwing the bicycle at him.

The two officers who stopped Brooks said he cursed at them and tried to fight by repeatedly putting up his fists and even throwing a few punches, according to court documents.

Police say, based on the circumstances, that officers’ actions were justified, but Brooks’ attorney, Meghan Blanco, said a video showing part of the arrest and testimony from at least one witness contradicts the official account of what happened.

Brooks maintains he never resisted police. “No witness saw him acting aggressively,” Blanco said.

Based on this, Blanco is trying to have Brooks freed and the criminal case against him dismissed.

Dark, grainy footage shows the end of the June 3 altercation. The video did not capture the beginning of the conflict nor what led up to it.

The video shows Brooks running away from two officers as someone yells, “Get on the ground.”

“Don’t Tase me,” can be heard more than once.

Brooks appears to crouch down and hold up one of his arms as an officer swings a baton at him.

A moment later, Brooks crawls behind a car and out of view as someone yells, “Stop resisting.”

The ticking sound of a Taser shocking someone can be heard intermittently throughout the video, according to Blanco.

After Brooks crawls out of view, he repeatedly cries out “Neteru,” a name from an ancient Egyptian belief system that has religious significance to Brooks, according to his lawyer.

The video ends shortly after two more officers run up to Brooks, who is now on the ground.

Blanco said baton blows left Brooks with a broken arm. She argues the footage shows no sign of Brooks acting aggressively.

Police collected the video from a witness at the scene who filmed it, but Blanco only obtained it later when the witness posted it on Facebook, according to the attorney.

In police reports contained in court filings, the two officers who stopped Brooks describe him as combative.

The officers, Brady Vriens and Leticia Newton, wrote that Brooks was riding southbound on Atlantic Avenue just north of 6th Street, not far from Downtown Long Beach.

The officers said they pulled their car up behind Brooks and hit their lights and siren because it was dark and Brooks’ bike didn’t have the required bicycle headlight.

But Brooks kept riding, ignoring multiple attempts to pull him over, according to the reports.

At one point, he gave the officers the middle finger, yelled an expletive and said, “I ain’t gonna stop,” according to Newton, who was driving the car.

Vriens wrote that he jumped out of the car to chase Brooks, who was now riding on the sidewalk in front of a hamburger restaurant on Atlantic at 6th Street.

“I again ordered Brooks, ‘Get on the ground,’ however he refused to comply again and instead got off of his bicycle, picked it up by the seat and handle bars and threw it at me, striking me on the left knee,” Vriens wrote. “He then assumed a fighting stance by turning his body, clenching his hands into fists and bringing them up to his jaw line. At this point, I determined that Brooks was going to violently resist arrest rather than comply with our lawful orders.”

Seconds later, Vriens wrote, Brooks threw a punch at him, and Vriens responded by swinging his baton.

In the following moments, Vriens and Newton describe Brooks running north on Atlantic across 6th Street until he was in front of another restaurant where the officers subdued Brooks with their batons, Tasers and pepper spray while he allegedly tried to punch and kick them even while he was on the ground.

However, a witness who said she was inside the burger restaurant during the attack describes police as the aggressors. In a notarized statement, Elizabeth Brainard said the altercation started with an officer swinging his baton at Brooks.

After the police car pulled up to the restaurant, a male officer got out and ran after Brooks, according to her statement.

“The officer ran up to the man and once he was close, started swinging the weapon at the man on the bike from the left side of him,” she said. “The man jumped off of his bicycle looking surprised and terrified and confused at the same time. The officer continued swinging the baton and the man being attacked put his hands up and moved backwards.”

Brainard said more officers arrived and swarmed Brooks, taking him to the ground. However, Brainard makes no mention of Brooks running across the street away from where she was watching. During a court hearing, she also testified it was around 7 p.m. at the time and still light enough to see clearly.

Conversely, officers say the incident began around 8:45 p.m. The video also reveals it is quite dark outside.

Long Beach police spokesman Sgt. Brad Johnson said multiple layers of supervisors have reviewed the officers’ actions and decided they were reasonable.

“Based on the reports, our officers were attacked,” Johnson said.

Johnson said more often than not, Long Beach officers do not use force when taking someone into custody. Only 3 percent of arrests by the department involve some kind of force, he said.

Of that small percentage of arrests, even fewer are found to involve misconduct by officers, according to Johnson.

“This incident was found in policy, and we support our officers when they do the right thing,” he said, but he added the department does discipline officers when needed.

Both officers are still employed at the department and assigned to patrol, according to Johnson.

Blanco said she believes the officers’ conduct is being investigated by Long Beach police’s internal affairs division because officers from that unit have spoken to witnesses about the event. At a court hearing Wednesday, Blanco will make her case to a judge that she deserves to see what’s in those internal affairs files.

Johnson said the department did receive a citizen’s complaint about the arrest, but after it was investigated, officials decided it was unfounded.

Prosecutors from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, which is handling the criminal case against Brooks, declined to answer questions.

Police said they discovered after detaining Brooks that he had a warrant out for his arrest on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. That case involved Brooks pointing a crystal staff he carried around at a person, but the charge was later dropped, according to Blanco.

Brooks also has a criminal history. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to attempted robbery and battery with a deadly weapon in Clark County Nevada, according to court records.

Because of those previous convictions, Brooks’ bail a possible penalty are higher than normal.

He could face up to life in prison if he’s convicted on all three charges prosecutors have filed: assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and two counts of resisting an executive officer — all felonies.

In November, a judge declined to throw out the those charges at the request of Brooks’ lawyer, but the judge noted that the version of events presented by police and Brainard are “diametrically opposed.”

If the same evidence were shown at trial, Brooks would be found not guilty, Judge Daniel J. Lowenthal said according to a transcript. Nevertheless, he ruled the case could continue to a jury where it would be sorted out.

“The court has extreme concern, though, about the version of events that was heard from the witness,” Lowenthal said. “It was very troubling.”

He cautioned, though, that if the event did happen closer to 9 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. as Brainard said, she may not have seen the events as clearly as she testified.