Coweta police chief Mike Bell says he stands behind his officer’s handling of a traffic stop that left 69-year-old James Rogers injured, telling News On 6 the incident escalated because Rogers refused to follow the officer’s commands.

Bell released a video Tuesday walking through bodycam footage of the stop, an unusual step he said was meant to give the public context that a widely shared surveillance video did not.

Why release a walkthrough video?

“I think by going out there yesterday and at least talking a little bit about the video and the idea behind that was it’s easy to miss things when we watch a video, just kind of like the video that was placed on Facebook first,” Bell said. “It’s easy to miss what actually is taking place in those videos.”

Bell said the surveillance video that first circulated on social media came with a narrative attached that shaped how people interpreted it before they had the full picture.

“When they put that video out there, what I did notice is the person that put it out there also put a narrative out there with it,” Bell said. “You’ve already set the stage. Everybody’s going to believe what that person’s saying at that moment.”

According to Bell, officers are trained to keep a traffic stop scene safe for everyone involved before anything else. He said Rice instructed Rogers multiple times to get back in his vehicle after Rogers got out and began approaching him.

“Officer Rice is trying to instruct him: please get back in the vehicle, get back in the vehicle,” Bell said. “And the individual’s not following his command. So at that point, the officer is going to start thinking, okay, what’s going on here?”

Chief pushes back on “takedown” characterization

Bell said Rice’s initial plan was to have Rogers stand against the car while the two talked, but the situation escalated before that could happen.

“His next thing was, well, let’s put him up against the car and just keep him safe for a couple of minutes until we figure out – maybe have a conversation,” Bell said. “But as you can see by the video, we never got to that because it kept escalating.”

If it wasn’t a “deliberate takedown,” what was it?

Bell’s initial statement said the video did not show Rice performing a “deliberate takedown maneuver,” a description that drew scrutiny after bodycam audio caught Rice telling Rogers he didn’t want to have to “slam” him.

Bell maintains the fall was not a deliberate takedown, describing it instead as the result of Rogers swinging away from Rice while the two struggled near the hood of the car.

“You can tell that the individual start to swing one way, and Officer Rice was trying to go with him and they both fell to the ground,” Bell said. “If you notice, he jumps right back up, and he tries to get control of the subject at that time.”

Bell said a true takedown maneuver, as officers are trained to perform it, looks different than what’s on the video.

“Normally it’s with an armbar. We’ll use an armbar to take you down, we’ll grab you by your arm a certain way, and then we’ll take you to the ground,” Bell said. “It’s usually a slow maneuver; it’s not a quick, a fast maneuver. But that didn’t happen here. If you notice, they fell pretty quick, it was over within a second.”

Even so, Bell said, a deliberate takedown would have been within department policy given that Rogers was resisting.

“If that officer decided that a takedown was necessary at that moment, he would have been within policy to do that,” Bell said. “That officer told him three times: please stop resisting, please, I don’t want to fight with you, I don’t want to fight, I do not want to take you to the ground.”

What about his age?

Rogers’ son-in-law has questioned why an officer would use that level of force against a 69-year-old man he described as small and frail. Bell said age alone doesn’t determine whether someone poses a risk.

“I have to admit, in my 40 years in law enforcement, I’ve fought some pretty hefty, strong 60-year-old people in my time,” Bell said. “So you just never know. An officer, right, just like anybody else, has a right to protect himself, and he’s got a right to go home to his family.”

Bell said Rogers appeared to respond to questions and make eye contact with officers at the scene, despite reports that he is hard of hearing.

“He wasn’t reacting as though he was having trouble hearing – we were having conversations out there at the scene,” Bell said. “It seems like at times that he may have been a little confused about where he might have been at out there, which leads me to believe it might be something else that the family needs to be concerned about.”

Is Officer Rice still on duty?

Rice has not been placed on leave and remains on active duty while the department conducts an internal review, which Bell said is standard procedure after any use-of-force incident.

“At this time, I don’t believe Officer Rice should be suspended,” Bell said. “I think he did the right thing during this – he didn’t want to do what happened to Mr. Rogers. But at the end of the day, Mr. Rogers is still alive, and so is Officer Rice.”

Would this have gone differently if Rogers had stayed in the car?

Bell said the outcome would have been different had Rogers stayed in his car.

“Rice would have walked up to him, had a conversation with the – Rogers – traffic infraction, and at that moment a ticket would have been issued and he would have been sent on his way,” Bell said.

Bell said that message applies broadly to anyone pulled over.

“In today’s environment, we expect everybody to please stay in your car,” Bell said. “You have a chance to argue your point when you go into a courtroom with the judge, which is a controlled environment. Our job is to get you safely back on the road and away from this situation.”