Skateboarder Uses Jiu-Jitsu To Control Cop While Resisting Arrest
San Diego, CA October 14 2019– A video has gone viral of a San Diego Miramar College police officer struggling to subdue a skateboarder who was resisting arrest using jiu-jitsu moves (video below).
The incident occurred on Sept. 4 when San Diego Community College District Police Officer Terry Hiett caught 19-year-old Justin Fernandez skateboarding on the walkway into the Business and Math Building, The Mesa Press reported.
Skateboarding is illegal on the college’s campus.
A cell phone video filmed by a passerby showed Fernandez arguing and cursing at the officer who was trying to detain him to issue a citation.
The video showed Officer Hiett grabbed onto Fernandez’s backpack to try and prevent the student from walking away, but Fernandez continued to pull away and headed down a hallway to class, The Mesa Press reported.
The altercation drew spectators as the skateboarder continued to resist the officer’s efforts to detain him.
Fernandez told them “this guy got butt-hurt for no reason” just before the officer took him to the ground, the video showed.
The student began fighting the officer on the floor of the hallway and screamed that the officer was using a chokehold when Officer Hiett managed to subdue him.
That’s when the video showed Fernandez wrapped his legs around the officer and holding him in closed guard.
While it may not be apparent to an untrained audience, Fernandez’s actions are considered very aggressive, according to police sources. Police officers are legally allowed to respond to such actions by using their weapons and closed-fist strikes.
However, the officer did not respond with additional force.
“I’m not going to do anything, I’m keeping you here. I’m stopping you,” Fernandez told the officer.
“This is so unnecessary, I was skating,” the student complained to his audience.
“He was just skateboarding,” a voice behind the camera opined. Then the same person whined about the officer’s “use of force.”
“He’s on top of him for Christ’s sake,” the man whined.
A female bystander could be heard arguing with him in the video, saying that Fernandez needed to comply with the officer’s instructions.
A campus security officer arrived on the scene and stood over Fernandez and Officer Hiett and encouraged the student to calm down and let the officer do his job.
“He put me in a chokehold,” Fernandez ranted to the security guard. “I’ll cooperate with you, get him away.”
“He’s an officer,” the security guard pointed out.
“I don’t care!” Fernandez replied in the video. “He put me in a chokehold for no reason. F–k that!”
The security officer walked away and the video showed the pinned student tried to take another tact.
“Okay, ya know what’s going to happen?” Fernandez asked Officer Hiett. “We’re going to stand up, we’re going to talk about this, okay? Because I respect you.”
When the officer ignored his request, the student began threatening him again.
“I’m going to flip you over if you don’t stop,” Fernandez said, repositioning his legs around Officer Hiett.
The student continued to argue with the officer who quietly ignored him and held him on the ground.
Then Fernandez started complaining about how it was taking so long for the officer’s backup to arrive, the video showed.
As they waited, the officer reminded Fernandez that he had stopped him for skateboarding and tried to detain him to talk to him, and it was Fernandez who refused to stop and talk.
“You have to use this type of force for people who are not complying, he was not being compliant,” a woman off-camera said.
Five minutes into the video, Officer Hiett’s backup arrived in the form of six additional police officers who then helped him roll Fernandez over and apply handcuffs to the student, the video showed.
Fernandez told the officers that he didn’t need medical attention, and then officers walked him out of the building as he gave his email address over his shoulder to the other student who had been filming the incident.
The Miramar College Campus Police Department said that Fernandez had been charged with resisting or delaying a peace officer, a misdemeanor, according to The Mesa Press.
