Watsonville police respond to Facebook video showing alleged officer brutality

The Watsonville Police Department has called for an independent investigation after a video posted on Facebook has called into question how an officer detained a man in a wheelchair.

Chief Manny Solano said he is always appreciative when the department is made aware of how officers conduct themselves on the job.

In this case, after viewing the video, Solano felt it was important to review whether proper procedures and protocol were followed.

“It’s very difficult,” said Solano.

The cellphone video taken Sunday morning on Brennan Street was posted to social media sites and quickly spread. It depicts an officer identified as Lee Katich, a 20-year veteran of the police department, responding to a report of a man in a wheelchair who was refusing to leave a local business. The man also was reported to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Officer Katich says the man ignored orders to leave and that is when he began to handcuff him, as shown in the video.

And that’s when the man goes from the wheelchair to the ground.

“Mr. Cook, on his own accord, got up and was assisted by Officer Katich back into his wheelchair and went back on his way,” Solano said.

The officer did accomplish what the reporting party asked for, but were the officer’s actions appropriate? That’s what Watsonville police want to look into and so they’ve hired an independent investigator.

“It just called into question at least in my mind, the desire to have it examined a little bit more,” Solano said.

He said law enforcement agencies throughout the Central Coast are having more and more encounters with individuals who are either mentally ill or chronically intoxicated.

“Even before this took place, we long recognized the need for better training for officers on how to deal with difficult people,” Solano said.

Watsonville Police Department officers will start new training for exactly that in November. They will learn how to identify mental illness and the myths surrounding it.

“We’re not clinicians,” Solano said. “We don’t know that. We’re called to a scene, and again being asked to bring peace to a particular situation. and it’s very difficult.”

Police say the person detained in the video didn’t report any injuries and left without being cited with trespassing.

NewsChannel 5 reporter Monica Jacquez reached out to the woman who posted the video on Facebook but she didn’t respond.