BRAD BELL, WJLA BRENTWOOD, Md. (WJLA) - Dramatic surveillance video released Tuesday appears to show a Prince George's County officer striking a teen with his gun during an incident in Brentwood this past February.
The recording is from the store in Brentwood, just before 9:45 p.m. on Feb. 3. On the video, then-19-year-old Ryan Dorm enters the frame first. He turns around, hands down and faces Cpl. Donald Taylor. The officer, his gun drawn, swings his right hand and hits Dorm in the face with his service weapon. You can see a flash as the gun fires.
Taylor wrote in his official report that the gun fired as he was being assaulted by Dorm and that the teen reached for the officer's gun.
Attorney Jim Bell represents Dorm, says the officer clearly lied.
“What the police officer did was he lied on my client,” Bell says. “He said my client tried to attack him the video shows he attacked my client and hit him in the head with the gun.”
The incident happened in February in Brentwood when Taylor and his partner spotted Dorm and a friend walk into this gas station store. The officers felt a robbery was about to happen and entered the store.
No crime was committed but Dorm, who has been in trouble with the law in the past, says he walked away to avoid trouble.
The police department uncovered the officer's apparent lie days after Dorm's arrest and in August the officer was charged with several crimes. All charges were dropped against Dorm but not until he'd served four months in jail.
The police chief has vowed transparency and to eliminate police brutality.