HOUSTON – Keuindarius St. Julien was arrested Wednesday night, but it’s what allegedly happened leading up to the handcuffs being put on that has his family and witnesses in an uproar demanding justice.
Around 10 p.m. Wednesday night, Brielle Ramos says she witnessed the arrest outside of the Family Dollar on Imperial Valley drive in Greenspoint that made her start recording it on her cellphone.
”It happened so fast, like instantly,” Ramos said. “As I turned around, I seen officers’ lights, as I turned around they were just beating him down.”
The footage has his family calling for internal and independent investigations.
”Because our skin doesn’t match your skin, it’s unfair the way that you’re treating our boys. Now, my son is in jail with a broken nose,” said St. Julien’s mother, Katina Joubert.
On Friday, Joubert stood alongside activists demanding that Houston police release body cam footage from the incident.
”They did not take him to the hospital, they took him straight to the jail. We know that if he went to the hospital the doctors would [have] asked what happened to him, and they would have to further explain their conduct and behavior as law enforcement officers,” said the leader of the New Black Panther Nation, Quanell X.
Right now St. Julien remains in the Harris County Jail, charged with assault on a peace officer, felon possession of a weapon, and possession of a controlled substance, but what is said to have happened before the charges is why some in this community are so upset.
”That is not the proper police training so in order for us to combat this, we have to call it out. We have to hold the leadership accountable for what they’re doing to our people in our community,” said Dr. Candice Matthews with the New Black Panther nation.
KPRC 2 reached out to HPD about the video, and we were told they are looking into it, but so far have not gotten a response.