Cops: We can't name officers involved in beating
Tyree Carrolls family gathered at the 14th District headquarters to discuss his arrest.
SUPPORTERS OF TYREE Carroll gathered in East Germantown last night to send a message about policing methods, demanding identification of the dozen or more officers involved in the 22-year-old's controversial April arrest.
Chief Inspector Myron Patterson and Capt. Sekou Kinebrew from the Philadelphia Police Department's 14th District heard concerns from residents at district headquarters on Haines Street near Germantown Avenue.
About 40 residents attended the district's monthly community meeting, mostly to ask for release of the names of the officers involved in Carroll's arrest on a drug-possession charge. Video that went viral this month shows Carroll surrounded by at least 12 officers, some of whom are seen punching and kicking him.
"I want them to say there's a right way of policing," resident Rebecca Subar said during the public-comment portion of the meeting.
"It would mean so much for you to tell the community that it's not OK to have a dozen or two officers surrounding another person."
Later in the meeting, Carroll's sister Ebony and other relatives asked for the release of the officers' names.
Kinebrew, at a white card table flanked by Patterson and three other cops, sat still, arms folded, and maintained that the department couldn't release too much information without compromising an Internal Affairs investigation into the incident.
Names would only be released at the discretion of Commissioner Charles Ramsey, Kinebrew said, adding that the department would have to make sure who was actually involved in the arrest.
"Maybe this guy didn't show up until two seconds before it was over, but that guy was there from the start," he said. "Those judgments have to be made."
Ramsey told the Daily News last week that he had no immediate plans to release the officers' names or to resign - another of the Carroll family's demands.
YahNe Ndgo Baker, an artist and writer who lives in the neighborhood, said she's been emotionally affected by recent news stories involving cops and violence.
After mentioning the case of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by police in Cleveland, she stressed that she wants cops to keep a level head and try to avoid violent incidents.
"You need to say, 'Yo, man, you're going too far!' " Baker said.
Earlier yesterday, Carroll, who remained in the House of Correction in Holmesburg, was formally arraigned in Common Pleas Court. His attorney, Berto Elmore, told a trial commissioner that he wants to obtain the police use-of-force report, as well as all witness statements and video in the case.
Internal Affairs investigators have been canvassing East Germantown and talking to residents since the investigation opened, Elmore said.
- Staff writer Julie Shaw
contributed to this report.