Chris Lollie’s back was to a wall in a St. Paul skyway while he talked to two police officers as another officer approached, using a Taser on the man soon after, surveillance video released Wednesday shows.

What happened between those two events is described differently by those who have seen the video in a case that has drawn national attention and criticism of St. Paul police.

“Lollie had been given a lawful order and needed to comply,” St. Paul Police Federation lawyer Chris Wachtler said. “He refused to do so.”

But Andrew Irlbeck, a St. Paul civil rights lawyer who represents Lollie, said, “I think the video clearly contradicts the information in the police report that he’s pushing, trying to run, resisting, that his resistance changed from verbal to physical. That clearly never happened. He let them hold him against the wall and Tase him.”

The case unfolded Jan. 31, when Lollie said he finished working an overnight shift and went downtown to pick up two of his children. Lollie has said he was waiting for them to arrive when he sat in the First National Bank Building’s skyway-level seating area.

Lollie, 28, sat in the chair closest to a skyway bridge at 9:34 a.m., according to security footage released by police Wednesday in response to media requests.

A security guard approached the St. Paul man about 9:40 a.m. Lollie has said the guard told him he was calling police. He said he waited about five minutes for police to arrive, then walked away to see if his children had arrived.

The video showed Lollie leaving at 9:50 a.m. and officer Lori Hayne arriving about the same time. Hayne was responding to a page from security guards at First National Bank who “requested assistance with an uncooperative male,” her police report said.

Lollie has said he remained in his seat looking at his cellphone because no signs said it was a private area.

St. Paul’s skyways are public, similar to a public sidewalk, the city attorney said last week.

Wachtler, the police union lawyer, said Wednesday that “whether or not the seating area in question was ‘public’ or ‘private’ is irrelevant for purposes of analyzing these officers’ actions. A building security officer informed the officers that the area was in fact private – designated for employees only – and that Mr. Lollie had been asked to vacate it twice the officers were duty-bound to investigate Mr. Lollie.”

VIDEO CAPTURES ARREST

Lollie has said he told Hayne he would walk and talk with her because he was going to pick up his children. He recorded the conversation on video using his cellphone.

Hayne told him, “I want to find out who you are and what the problem was back there.”

Lollie replied that he knew his rights, and “I don’t have to let you know who I am” since he hadn’t broken any laws.

Wachtler said if “Lollie (had) simply given officer Hayne his name when she first encountered him some distance from the area in question, and agreed to have a rational conversation with her, a discussion about whether the area was in fact private or public could have occurred. Mr. Lollie, through his own words and actions, made certain that that discussion would not and did not occur.”

Irlbeck, who plans to file a federal lawsuit on Lollie’s behalf, said people have asked him, “Why didn’t Lollie give his name?”

“Because he didn’t have to,” Irlbeck said Wednesday. “Everyone has this attitude that we should do what police ask of us at all times, as if there was no value to our constitutional rights.”

Lollie posted his cellphone video to YouTube on Aug. 26, after he got his phone back when the misdemeanor charges against him, including trespassing, were dismissed July 31.

The video, which Lollie titled “Black man tazed and taken to jail for sitting in public area,” has been viewed more than 1.2 million times. The video goes dark after about 2 minutes, when Lollie said an officer put his cellphone on a ledge, but the audio continued.

The other video police released Wednesday is security footage from Securian Center’s skyway level. Lollie’s children attended daycare in the building at the time. It begins at 9:53 a.m., when Lollie and Hayne walked into the building.

Officer Mike Johnson was next to arrive. The video camera was controlled by Securian, and someone zoomed it in on Lollie and the officers. It does not include audio.

Police wrote in a report that Lollie was “actively resisting by attempting to pull his arm away” and “began to forcefully try to shove past us as he was pulling away from us.”

Officer Bruce Schmidt pulled his Taser because of Lollie’s “noncompliance,” and “he gives a warning” twice that he’ll use it, said Sgt. Paul Paulos, a St. Paul police spokesman. Schmidt put the Taser to Lollie’s thigh and used it to stun him, Paulos said.

Jeff Martin, St. Paul NAACP president, said, “I look at the position of the officers around him – he’s basically closed in on a wall, they have him surrounded with three officers,” he said. “He’s talking to them, he’s animated, he’s upset because he feels like he’s being treated badly.” Martin said he didn’t see Lollie physically resisting.

Wachtler said Lollie had walked almost two blocks by the time he was arrested. Minnesota law “allows officers to use force to accomplish an arrest if: (1) the officer has informed the defendant of the intent to arrest; and (2) the defendant then flees or forcibly resists,” Wachtler continued in his statement.

“Once an officer tells a person that he or she is under arrest, the individual no longer has any right to resist the arrest, even if it turns out to be unlawful.”

But Irlbeck said, “This was an illegal arrest that he did not physically resist so he doesn’t meet either of the elements.”

LOLLIE AND POLICE – ONE CONVICTION

Lollie said recently that most contacts with police in his life have been negative. When police approached him Jan. 31, Lollie said, “The main thing for me was remaining calm, sticking to my rights and making sure I recorded it.”

In other cases, Lollie has also told police that he wouldn’t give them his name, officers have reported he hasn’t followed their commands, and he’s had a Taser pointed at him, St. Paul police reports show.

Last year, Lollie said, he was walking to the bus when police stopped him, saying they were looking for a domestic – dispute suspect in a red shirt, the same color he was wearing. “I’m trying to tell them I’m not the guy, I’m trying to catch the bus to get home,” Lollie said.

Officers asked Lollie “where he was coming from and he stated that it ‘did not matter,’ ” a police report said. Police handcuffed him and put him in a squad car, then determined he wasn’t involved in the domestic dispute.

Lollie has one misdemeanor conviction – disorderly conduct from a 2010 case with a former girlfriend. The woman threw a can of baby formula at Lollie, striking him, and he hit her in the face, a police report said. Lollie reportedly told police it was a reflex after she threw the can at him and that he was sorry.

OFFICERS’ HISTORY

The three officers involved in the skyway case were longtime St. Paul officers; Schmidt and Johnson still work downtown and Hayne retired in June.

Johnson and Hayne’s personnel records show they haven’t been disciplined in the past. Schmidt received oral reprimands in 1992 and 1998 for preventable accidents.

The police department’s internal affairs unit investigated 11 other complaints against Schmidt from 1991 to 2003, and 11 complaints against Johnson from 1991 to 2006. Hayne was the subject of one complaint in 1997.

None of those complaints resulted in discipline. The nature of the complaints isn’t public under state law because they were not sustained.

Schmidt was one of four St. Paul officers sued by a woman for allegedly using excessive force in a 1992 encounter; a Ramsey County jury found for the officers in 1994.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has called for a review of the Lollie case, and an internal affairs investigation is underway.

It will be sent to the Police-Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission, which will make a recommendation to the police chief, including whether officers should be disciplined.

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried..