2 officers suspended after video shows APD using chokehold

A video, shot two days after the city of Anderson announced it had banned chokeholds by its police force, shows an officer applying a chokehold during an arrest.

The edited 42-second video shows two Anderson Police Department officers arresting Spencer Dakota Nice, 21, on Saturday evening. The APD later charged Nice with resisting arrest. The officers have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation.

In a joint statement Monday evening, Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. and Police Chief Jake Brown said that Nice had been arrested for suspicious behavior after an officer heard gunshots while he was patrolling about 9 p.m. in the 3000 block of Noble Street.

In the video, the officer, Brandon Reynolds, is standing behind Nice.

Suddenly, Reynolds reaches over Nice's shoulder and squeezes the smaller man's neck between his forearm and bicep, twisting Nice around and taking him to the pavement, where another officer, Ashley Gravely, helps restrain him.

Reynolds, as shown in the video, pushes with a hand on the back of Nice's neck, forcing his face into the pavement. Both officers use their knees, one in the middle of Nice's back and one pressing against his legs, as they twist Nice's arms behind his back to handcuff him.

Nice doesn't appear, in any portion of the video, to resist the arrest.

"I was surprised," Nice said Monday. "It came out of nowhere. It all happened so fast."

After watching a Facebook post of the video, APD Chief Jake Brown placed Reynolds and Gravely on paid administrative leave Monday "pending a full investigation of the incident," according to the joint statement.