Steven Porter

sporter@jconline.com

The entire Lafayette Police Department command staff recommended that Lt. Tom Davidson be fired for toppling a man in a wheelchair into the street last year, but the department's Civil Service Commission decided instead to issue a 30-day suspension and place the officer on supervisory probation for a year.

Lafayette Police Chief Patrick Flannelly made that revelation Tuesday as he released a video of the wheelchair incident, which took place Oct. 1.

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"It was just inappropriate," Flannelly said of Davidson's behavior, adding that it was especially egregious given the lieutenant's status as the highest-ranking officer at the scene.

The five civilians on the commission agreed that Davidson had engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer. They disagreed, however, on the second charge brought against him, voting 3-2 that his use of force in response to resistance was in line with LPD policies.

Mayor Tony Roswarski said during Tuesday's press conference that he supported the department's recommendation to terminate Davidson's employment.

The disparity between the recommended discipline and that imposed by the commission shows, Roswarski said, that the LPD is tough on its own. The commission exists in order to provide a system of checks and balances, he said.

The 33-minute video, recorded by a dashboard camera in Officer Aaron Lorton's patrol car, shows Davidson already engaged in a conversation with 25-year-old Nicholas Kincade when Lorton arrived near the intersection of North Ninth and Elizabeth streets.

Police reports indicate that officers were called to the scene after Kincade, who uses a motorized wheelchair, told employees from a charter school nearby that he was armed with a gun. Officers quickly determined that Kincade didn't have a gun, but they found a pocket knife that Kincade said he carried for protection.

School personnel asked police to inform Kincade that he was no longer welcome near the school, so police warned him he could be charged with trespassing if he refused to leave or returned without permission.

Flannelly said Tuesday that Kincade had started to leave when he collided with Davidson.

"The subject was complying at that point in doing what we'd asked him to do," Flannelly said.

A report prepared by Davidson states that he "gave a two handed strike, open handed" to Kincade's right shoulder when the subject drove the powered chair onto his foot and shin.

The video shows Kincade falling from his wheelchair as it topples. He sustained facial abrasions when he struck the pavement.

"Now you're going to jail," officers said in the video.

"I didn't see you," responded Kincade, face-down on the pavement, as two officers begin to handcuff him.

Flannelly said Davidson acted "reflexively" but that the use of force could have been avoided had he simply taken one step out of the way.

Kincade was handcuffed and arrested for battery against a law enforcement officer, a Class D felony, but the charge was dismissed five months later. Then in May, LPD's Civil Service Commission disciplined Davidson.

Normally, an internal review is triggered whenever a police officer uses force. However, the investigation into the Kincade case was delayed, Flannelly said, because of a notification glitch in the department's record-keeping system.

Davidson has completed his 30-day suspension and returned to work for the department, but he won't be out on the street for the time being.

Flannelly said the former lieutenant now serves as a first class officer in LPD's Administrative Services Division in order to "put some distance" between the department and the incident.