'High on PCP': Wife of man who was arrested says excessive force was used

HOUSTON – The wife of a man accused of assaulting a police officer claims police used excessive force in their attempt to arrest him.

Questions were raised after a video of the incident, shot by a friend of the man police arrested, surfaced.

The incident happened early Saturday morning in Acres Homes in the 2500 block of West Little York.

VIDEO: Video shows man who is high on PCP being arrested by Houston police

In the video, you can see David Lott, shirtless, wearing only shoes and underwear, standing in the middle of the street.

Houston police said he was aggressively panhandling, hitting and kicking at cars and asking for money while he was high on drugs.

“He was high on PCP,” Terri Rogers said.

Police said that, when they tried to arrest Lott, he became angry and even after they shocked him with a Taser he was still combative.

In the video, you can see several police officers rush over and use force to subdue Lott. Terri Rogers claims what they did nearly killed him.

“When he spoke to me, he told me that he had to hold his breath for the police officer to relieve his knee off his neck,” Rogers said.

KPRC2 showed the arrest video to attorney Thomas Nixon, a former officer with the Houston Police Department who’s dealt with these situations before. He said nothing could be farther from the truth.

“It's textbook for someone who is in a completely altered state of mind,” Nixon said.

Nixon said police did not use excessive force.

“The best way to keep from getting bitten by a suspect you are trying to arrest is to put your knee on their neck and their face in the ground and just keep them down,” Nixon said.

Lott’s wife said she understands why officers feared for their safety but still believes they could have handled the situation differently.

“We need justice. Someone needs to give up their badge. Everything they did -- that was not called for,” Rogers said.

Lott remains hospitalized. Rogers said she intends to hire an attorney and file a complaint with HPD.


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