Raleigh man seen in viral police video facing multiple assault charges

Frederick Darnell Hall, of Raleigh, has been charged with resisting a public officer and assault on a government official in connection with Friday's incident.

Doris Tomberlin, Hall's mother, said she was told Saturday that she would be able to see her son on Sunday, while he was being treated at WakeMed. But, she said, he was transported to the Wake County Detention Center on Sunday, and therefore she was not able to see him.

Hall is being held under a $45,000 bond. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday.

Videos posted to social media on Friday show the confrontation between Hall and at least a half dozen Raleigh police officers. New video posted to Facebook on Saturday shows Hall taking multiple swings at officers before they attempt to subdue him.

The witness who posted one of the videos on Friday said, although officers used fists and batons and forced Hall to the ground, "the officers handled it as well as they could, since it seemed like nothing was going to take that guy down."

Hall's brother, who also spoke at the news conference, said Hall is on the medicine Olanzapine, which is used to treat mental disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Tomberlin said Hall was treated at Holly Hill Hospital after his last arrest, and has been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder.

"We have not got any really definite information where he is at, how he is doing, what condition he is in, none of that, none," said Tomberlin of her son. "All I know is I saw him in the middle of the road being beat, being beat down.”

Tomberlin, who lives in Jacksonville, said her granddaughter, Hall's niece, was able to visit him in the hospital on Saturday, and that he is "doing okay," but she does not understand why she has not been able to see her son.

"I don't think it's justice keeping a mother away from her child for two days," Tomberlin said during the news conference on Sunday. "I can't lay my eyes on him to know that he's fine...I'm hurting today. I'm hurting because that's been taken away from me."

On Monday, the Raleigh Police Protective Association is expected to hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. outside city hall. The group represents the six officers who were seen in the video involving Hall.

"Raleigh police officers did their jobs Friday afternoon, just as they do each and every day, just as they are trained," Rick Armstrong, a former Raleigh police officer, said in a news release.

Armstrong spoke to WRAL News by phone on Sunday night and addressed the concern of officers using a baton while Hall was on the ground.

"From what I gather watching the video and speaking to some of the officers, is he was biting an officer. Basically his teeth were in one of the officer's legs," Armstrong said.

He said it can also be difficult for officers to know if they are interacting with someone with a mental health issue.

"The amount of force that is necessary to detain the individual, that's the amount of force they can use, it can be as little as verbal commands to as much as deadly force," he said.

Bonnie Kidder said she believes the officers were justified in their actions, based on the man's behavior.

Hall's mother sees it differently. She said she saw the video on television before realizing that her son was involved.

“It broke my heart. It broke my heart,” she said. "I see them beating him in his back with a billy stick and kicking him in his face and holding his hand down and beating him and stomping his hand and treating him like he is inhuman, and it is not fair."

Tomberlin said she does not know what led to the altercation between officers and her son, but said Hall suffers from a mental disability.

"He works all the time, doesn't bother nobody, not violent," she said.

A nephew, Demetrious Hannan, 28, was arrested on a trespassing charge at WakeMed. The family says he was trying to visit Hall.

In a news conference Saturday afternoon, Tomberlin was joined by another son, a niece and Diana Powell, executive director of Justice Served in NC.

"All they will tell my daughter is that he is alive," she said. "What kind of condition is my child in?"

A police spokeswoman on Saturday afternoon said Hall was being treated at WakeMed, but that he was not allowed to have visitors, per hospital policy.

"I know the God I serve, and he said whatever I ask in his name, it shall be given, and I ask him for justice for my child," Tomberlin said.

According to his criminal record, Hall was charged in March 2016 with resisting a public officer and assault resulting in physical injury.

His mother says that incident was also a result of police overreach.

"This is the second time that they have beaten my child unconscious," Tomberlin said on Saturday.

"(They) beat him so bad, they had handcuffs on his hands, and it was swollen over the handcuff, and he had gashes in his head where they had done beat him in his head,” she said of Hall's 2016 arrest.

Hall's brother, Douglas Hall, said he was rear-ended on Interstate 540 and Raleigh police and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol were involved in that arrest.

According to a Raleigh police spokeswoman, that encounter involved only the Highway Patrol.

All charges against him were later voluntarily dismissed. Hall's only other arrest was for speeding in 1994.

His mother says he is not violent and is a manager of a McDonald's. “He works all the time, doesn't bother nobody," she said.Douglas Hall said his brother has a history of mental illness, including time spent at Holly Hill Mental Health Center after his 2016 arrest, and that police were aware of his condition.

A police spokeswoman on Friday identified Hall, 44, as the man in the video and said he had been taken to WakeMed for treatment of his injuries. By Saturday morning, the hospital had no record of him as a patient. A Wake County jail spokesperson said he was not there either.

Hall's mother said she hoped to speak to Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman to ask where her son is.

Videos posted to Facebook Friday show officers approaching Hall on Garner Road near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The beginning of the video shows Hall swinging wildly at three officers, two of whom appear to be female, before they respond by using their batons.

At one point in the footage, at least six officers can be seen holding Hall down as they punch and kick him in his upper body and head.

Kidder said she was stopped at a red light when she saw a car stop in the middle of the intersection. She said she assumed the car had run out of gas, until she saw multiple police cars approach the scene.

"That's when I pulled my phone out to record this because I knew, I said to my co-worker, 'something's not right,'" Kidder said in a phone interview with WRAL News.

Kidder said the man, who was not wearing a shirt or shoes, had exited his car and was walking toward the back of the vehicle, toward police officers.

"He was confrontational. He was very confrontational toward them," she said.

Kidder said she saw officers use a Taser on the man at least once as they struggled to restrain him.

"They were hitting him as hard as they probably could, and he didn't seem even phased by it. He just kept going. He was swinging at them. It was everything they could do to get him down on the ground," she said.

Once the man was on the ground, Kidder said it appeared as thought he attempted to bite one of the officers as they placed him in handcuffs.

"I heard them say 'quit resisting,' and the gentleman was noncompliant, obviously," Kidder said.

The Wake County District Attorney's Office has requested all available video from the incident, including dashboard camera and body camera footage.

"I am in consultation with the State Bureau of Investigation and, once we have completed a review, will be making a determination as to what the appropriate next steps are," Freeman said. "We are requesting the community's patience as we go through this process."

Raleigh police issued a statement saying:

The Raleigh Police Department is aware of the incident that occurred earlier today at Garner Road and Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard; we are reviewing the matter in accordance with our departmental policies. In the spirit of transparency, we have proactively made the District Attorney’s office aware of this situation. The Raleigh Police Department offers no further comment on this ongoing investigation.​

On Saturday, the NAACP added its voice to that call, saying they don't believe that the beating was justified.

“The beating was not justified, no matter what he had done," said Rev. Dr. Portia Rochelle, NAACP Raleigh-Apex branch president. "He had not killed anyone, he did not maim anyone, he did not shoot anyone."

Rochelle said she too waited at the hospital in an attempt to see Hall but, like his family, was denied.

"I don't know what kind of rule they could have in place to prevent the family. They're not here to hurt him, they're here to give him support and help him through this," she said.

During a Saturday afternoon press conference, led by the NAACP, Hall's family said that all they have been told is that Hall is alive. They said they still do not know what led to the confrontation between him and police.

"Enough is enough," Hall's mother said. "I'll go to the governor's house on this, and I'll sit on his step until he gives me an answer on this."

Powell, of Justice Served in NC, encouraged Raleigh residents to turn out at the next city council meeting on Sept. 4 to pose questions to Chief of Police Sandra Deck-Brown.

"We will bring our folded chairs and take our place at that table," she said.

The director of the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association said the organization does not believe any of their members were involved in the incident, but it appears as though officers acted pursuant to department policy and the law.

"We are concerned about the police administration's decision to deviate from department policy, apparently to pander to public and political pressure," the director said in a statement Saturday night.

The PBA said they will hold a press conference Monday in Greenville in order to address their concerns and will be looking into what Raleigh police will do going forward in regards to the case.