David O’Brien Incident Timeline

 On 10 Jan 2020, plain clothes detective, on a surveillance assignment observed a four door Nissan Altima traveling
southbound on Lewis Ave that was weaving into opposing traffic and drove through a red light. The Altima continued
into opposing traffic while passing several vehicles, including a school bus and a city bus. The vehicle was observed
turning onto West Main Street, again running a red light.
 Officers broke off their surveillance assignment and moved towards the Altima in an attempt to get a license plate
number. The officers lost sight of the vehicle briefly and came upon an accident whereby the Altima had t-boned a
red Honda Accord at Lincoln Plaza.
 Upon arriving on the scene, Officers observed the Altima driver door open with air-bag deployed.
 The Officers identified themselves and ordered the driver of the vehicle out of the vehicle. He did not follow the orders
by the officers.
 The operator of the vehicle, David O’Brien was in the driver seat and was observed reaching towards various
locations within the vehicle. Officers could see several knives in the vehicle as they approached the vehicle. Officers
identified themselves as Police. They also had jackets and vests labeled “Police” on them.
 Officers attempted to remove O’Brien from the vehicle, during which time O’brien kept trying to reach for unknown
items.
 Officers were able to remove O’Brien from the vehicle, but he continued to resist by rolling on to his side and reaching
towards his waistband.
 O’Brien was directed to stop resisting but continued to keep his left hand in his waistband.
 Officers were able to control his right hand, but his left hand was not under control and at that point officers moved
him onto his stomach and utilized the strikes visible in the video to get compliance from O’Brien. Compliance is
defined as O’Brien releasing his hand from his waistband, demonstrating to the officers that there was no weapon,
and allowing the Officers to handcuff him.
 Officers were able to gain control of his left hand and placed O’Brien in handcuffs.
 Officers then moved to the victim in the Honda, David Ortiz, to render aid. David Ortiz appeared to have suffered
injuries to his head. It was later confirmed that he almost had his ear torn off, with 27 stitches required to completely
reattach the ear.

As always our department will continue to be transparent with all of our investigations. The release of information may
require more time due to the prosecutorial process and in some cases require permission for release.
We encourage the community to work in partnership with our agency and to keep open lines of communication.
Respectfully
LT Mennone
Internal Affairs Commander