DeSOTO - U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson shook her head after watching the 44-minute dashcam video of a DeSoto police squad forcing a black family face down in the street to be handcuffed.

“That was brutal,’’ Johnson said of six officers' heated response to a disturbance call in August that had calmed down before they arrived. “You’ve got to defuse and leave.’’

Johnson, whose district covers DeSoto and who has long pushed for ways to curb excessive police force, told The Dallas Morning News that the video suggests the predominantly black Dallas suburb of 53,000 needs a citizen review board to examine police actions, as well as more training for its officers.

Her criticisms, shared in an interview with The News, are the first from a lawmaker since DeSoto officials released the footage following an investigation by The News this month. The mom, Sammie Anderson, filed a brutality complaint that also alleges the police falsely arrested her sons.

Warning: this video includes images of violence and strong language. It has been edited for length and clarity and to remove personal information such as birth dates.

Johnson’s comments contribute to a torrent of questions facing the officers and their chief, Joseph Costa. He has publicly defended his officers — four black and two white — as complying with policies and training, though his own internal affairs office has yet to finish its investigation of the complaint.

Among other issues: Why did a white officer slam Anderson to the ground? Why did officers repeatedly tase her son, Grant Bible, while he already was face down in the street? Why did the police arrest him and one of his three brothers, Sam?

Sammie Anderson, second from left, poses with her sons (from left to right) Samuel Bible, 18, Tyrone Anderson, 15, and Grant Bible at their home in DeSoto, Monday, September 17, 2018. (Brandon Wade / Special Contributor)

The questions, raised by Texas civil rights leaders, the American Civil Liberties Union and experts in policing, cannot be answered by the dashcam video alone. Its view is limited. But it is the only footage DeSoto officials have been willing to release. Costa has withheld footage from at least six other cameras worn by the officers.

The chief has said the dashcam itself provides a good overview. His officers believed they were entering a dangerous situation with a possible weapon, he said. So they needed to “take control’’ of the scene. The sons were arrested in part because they resisted being handcuffed, he said.

Meanwhile, The News obtained documents under public-record laws showing two of the six officers — Bryan Scott-Lee and Ryan Money — had disciplinary problems leading up to the Aug. 7 incident.

Money was suspended without pay twice in May, once for chasing a stolen car into oncoming freeway traffic, which supervisors described as an “egregious’’ policy violation that endangered the public. He was reprimanded again in mid-August for another driving violation.

DeSoto Police Chief Joseph Costa. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

Scott-Lee also was cited with committing a "technical violation'' for unsafe driving in the same chase. He was suspended without pay in May for multiple policy violations, but his specific offenses were not disclosed in documents released to The News.

“This history of prior misconduct raises serious concerns with the police department’s internal investigation process,’’ said Andre Segura, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which has called on Costa to release all recordings.

The two officers and the four others — Patrick Krekel, Larry Walker, Courie Bryant, and Kendall McGill — have not answered requests from The News for comment.

What we know

What is known about the episode in front of Anderson’s home is that the mom was trying to stop an argument between Grant, 21 and his older brother, Matt Bateman, 23. Fearing they might hurt each other, she urged one of their girlfriends to call 911 so police could quell the argument.

The girlfriend pleaded with the dispatcher to send officers. As she struggled to talk because she was having an asthma attack, she said someone had a “sledgehammer.’’

Before squad cars rolled up, the dispute was over. Anderson and Matt were walking in the street as Grant was in his car backing out. The family and other witnesses told The News that the officers got out of their vehicles with weapons drawn; police say they were Tasers.

The dashcam shows the cops shouting for Anderson, her sons and a girlfriend to get on the ground. Turmoil ensued as the family questioned what they were doing. Anderson implored them not to harm her sons.

The mom, appearing alarmed, got off the ground as another son, Sam, walked toward officers. The dashcam view doesn’t show what startled her. It does show her getting close to a patrolman, who tackled her from behind, throwing her against the pavement.

The officers soon surrounded Grant who was face down. One cop said, “You need to calm down or you’ll be tased.’’ For roughly 40 seconds, four officers appear to hold him down as he screams. The video doesn’t show where they tased him.

The family remained on the hot pavement for much of the 40 minutes in the video, as a girlfriend explained to officers that Matt had been “going off on everybody,’’ and that he had hit his younger brother, Tyrone Anderson, 15.

Sam and Grant were arrested that evening on charges of interfering with a police officer. Matt was arrested that night on a domestic violence charge. This week, he agreed to undergo anger-management classes as part of a deferred adjudication agreement, his family said.

“What I did not understand is what motivated them to handcuff these people in such a brutal manner,’’ the congresswoman said. “But it’s a good thing to have it on camera’’ for the public to see.

Town hall meeting

Johnson was among several elected officials and about 60 attendees who watched the footage during a community meeting on Tuesday organized by city and police officials to discuss the officer’s use of force that evening.

Among those there were state Sen. Royce West, whose district includes DeSoto; District Attorney Faith Johnson; and a handful of DeSoto city and school officials. Anderson said her family had no knowledge of the gathering.

DeSoto police Sgt. Heath Penwarden, who heads internal affairs, stood in for Costa, as moderator. Costa missed the meeting because he was out of town.

Some residents questioned Penwarden about why it had been necessary to force everyone on the ground soon after the officers arrived.

Penwarden said that tactic was needed because when officers arrived Matt was in the street “without a shirt on and was moving towards the car’’ Grant was driving, while his mom was “keeping him from going over there.”

He also said there were at least six people at the scene who couldn’t be seen in the video. Officers need to “put them in a position where they could see everybody,’’ he said.

An audience member and senator West asked Penwarden and Faith Johnson whether it was legal for officers to handcuff people if they were not arrested. The district attorney confirmed it was legal, her only comments during the meeting.

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, asked DeSoto police officials whether they can legally handcuff people without arresting them. He also asked whether they would release six other videos captured by the officers' bodycams. Not at this time, the officials said. (Miles Moffeit)

Several people praised the officers’ response time and stated it was handled “as well as it could have been.”

One attendee said she saw a “lot of bad policing. The police escalated the situation; they should have just listened.''

A statement released by the city late Thursday said Mayor Curtistene McCowan, who helped organize the townhall meeting, felt "there were strong opinions circulating in the community based more on emotions and misinformation than on the basic facts."

In an interview with The News, Eugene O'Donnell, a former police officer and prosecutor who is a lecturer for John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said that he saw both proper and problematic police work in the footage.

“Realistically what happens is police are racing in as knights in shining armor,’’ O’Donnell said. “It's hard for humans to turn from a high-adrenaline worst-case scenario to a junk nothing event where you just have people being rambunctious.’’

The officers took a “hard-nosed approach,’’ but he could understand why they wanted people on the ground, he said. As for charging the sons with police interference, "you have to ask, is there really a need to pursue this?’’

Both Johnson and West told The News they would have preferred Costa waited for the results of the internal inquiry before saying publicly that his officers did nothing wrong. The ACLU and others have said those remarks could taint the probe.

“The internal affairs office may have a difficult time usurping the police chief’s stated opinion that these officers acted appropriately,’’ said Segura of the ACLU.

This isn't the first time Johnson has addressed police relations. She formed a Task Force on Citizen Review of the Police two years ago to offer advice to Dallas and other communities on ways to fight discriminatory policing and excessive force.

It proposed that communities create review boards or commissions dominated by citizens, instead of police, to conduct independent investigations of complaints against police officers.

"I think it's time for a citizen review board [in DeSoto] that is not loaded down with police themselves,'' Johnson said Wednesday.