Glendale police offer limited version of Taser incident

GLENDALE — Glendale police offered a little bit of their account of events when their officers shocked a suspect with a stun gun 11 times during a 2017 arrest.

In a news conference at their training facility Monday, police played body camera video, side by side, from the two officers who recorded their encounter with the suspect, Johnny Wheatcroft.

Wheatcroft has filed a lawsuit against the city of Glendale and multiple officers, alleging they used excessive force.

The pending litigation is why police were limited in their comments and would not allow news media to digitally record them.

Wheatcroft was the passenger in a silver Ford Taurus that was pulled over in a Motel 6 parking lot for an alleged turn signal violation. Officers asked Wheatcroft and the driver for identification, which neither of them said they had.

The traffic stop soon turned violent once Schneider used a Taser on Wheatcroft approximately 11 times, including on his genital area, in front of his young children, wife and friend.

Police said they found Officer Matthew Schneider outside of department policy in just one of his actions against Wheatcroft, which landed him a three-day suspension.

In that action, police said Schneider continued to use his Taser against Wheatcroft from the moment he had stopped resisting arrest.

Wheatcroft’s lawsuit claims the video proves Schneider pulled off his shorts and used the Taser against his genitalia.

Police said Wheatcroft’s shorts came off during the struggle, and the Taser missed his genitalia.

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