The video started. It was nighttime. Three officers strode up to a modest home. A 66-year-old grandmother had called 911 after her 27-year-old grandson became aggressive.
Carlos Adrian Ingram Lopez was naked and high on cocaine when the officers confronted him in the house’s cramped, unlit garage. One officer told him to get on the ground and he did, a flashlight briefly showing him on all fours.
The footage was not done, but the chief and his team didn’t need to see any more, not right then. They all knew how this ended.
Jolting as it was, the video raised a deeper question: Why did it take nearly eight weeks for the department’s leaders to see it?
A series of texts the AP obtained under a public records act request shows how the internal affairs commander responsible for that investigation downplayed the full range of failures.
Just an FYI that internal affairs investigators are still cops. Every TV show you’ll watch will show them as hated by departments. The reality is it’s not a separate department for the vast majority of police departments.
