A military veteran with a disability says he was mocked by four Dallas police officers after he was denied access to a restroom and ended up urinating on himself.
Dynell Lane told a Dallas police oversight board earlier this month that two off-duty cops working security at Serious Pizza refused to look at his medical paperwork after restaurant employees said he couldn’t use the bathroom.
Lane, who told the board he was wounded during deployment in Afghanistan and Kuwait as an army sergeant, later called 911. Two on-duty officers responded to the call but didn’t arrive on time.
Police bodycam footage appears to show the four officers mocking Lane and laughing at the situation, which happened in the early hours of June 10.
“So you guys made a guy pee himself?” one of the officers, who arrived later, asks the off-duty cops while laughing.
“Yeah,” one of the off-duty officers responds, smiling. The other off-duty officer then slaps his knee and starts laughing out loud after the female officer tells them Lane called 911.
“He calls back and said it’s OK he doesn’t need to pee anymore because he soiled …” the female officer says before the video cuts off.
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“The Dallas Police Department failed me,” Lane told oversight members at their monthly meeting on Aug. 8. “Two Dallas police officers discriminated against me and declined to assist me in bridging the gap between myself and the Serious Pizza manager.”
The two off-duty officers were identified in internal affairs documents as James Smith and Juan Figueroa Lua. The two other officers have not been named.
“I had higher expectations from the city,” Lane told the board. “Please hear me when I ask all to make change so no one with a disability will endure what I had to endure.”
The restaurant said in a statement sent to The Dallas Morning News that its owner, who is also a veteran, was not aware of the extent of the incident until the body camera footage was released.
“We are sad and disappointed to have learned about the way he was treated in the vicinity of our restaurant,” the statement read. “We are disheartened that we didn’t have the opportunity to resolve the situation in real time.”
Police said an internal affairs administrative investigation is underway.
With News Wire Services
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