“I want to let everyone know that I was scared and feared for my life … and I pray, I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Roderick Walker told reporters Friday.
A social media video of the encounter shows deputies holding him to the ground and slapping him in the face.
Clayton County is a suburb south of Atlanta.
One of the deputies was fired for using excessive force, and the criminal investigation into the incident was transferred to the Clayton County District Attorney’s Office, the sheriff’s office said.
Since the meeting with law enforcement, Walker has experienced a number of medical issues, including cognitive problems, headaches and blurred vision, “said Jane Lamberty, one of Walker’s attorneys.
Walker said he suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, a back injury, fractures around both eyes and “knee injuries require full body treatment.”
In a statement last Sunday, Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill Walker received medical treatment that included “adding X-rays to his head (no fractures were found) and being monitored by a doctor at the prison hospital.”
Walker and his lawyers held a news conference Friday after being released on bail from a Fulton County jail. He was transferred there on unrelated charges after being jailed from Clayton County Jail earlier this week.
Prison records The walker has been charged with two counts of battery and two counts of obstruction or obstruction by law enforcement officers.
Attorney Sheen Williams said he would call on all officers involved in the incident to open fire.
“You have a duty as an officer to take office and to protect and serve, and even if you are not a citizen beater, you cannot stand to let that happen,” Williams said.
Deputies asked for his ID before the confrontation, the lawyer says
When Walker, his girlfriend and one of his children returned a rental car on Sept. 11, they approached a ride-stock vehicle and rode home, Williams told CNN.
According to Williams, the car was later towed for what was described as a taillight violation.
Williams said Walkers asked delegates to show his ID, but he did not have it. Delegates were upset when asked why they needed the ID, the lawyer said. According to Williams, Walker told reporters he had done nothing wrong before they were told to get out of the car, which led to the use of officers’ power.
In the video of the incident, a deputy said, “He bit my hand!” A separate video taken from another angle shows children crying in a nearby car, with someone yelling “Daddy!”
“He never attacked or bit them, he just tried to survive,” Williams said Friday.
CNN’s Larry Eure contributed to this report.
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