Caught on Camera

‘I Can't See': Wild Bodycam Video Shows Lauderhill Cop Tase Man Who Pepper-Sprayed Him

Footage shows Lauderhill officer use Taser on man at same time he's maced in the eyes

NBC Universal, Inc.

Wild police body camera footage shows a Lauderhill officer using a stun gun on a man who pepper-sprayed him in the face during a traffic stop.

The incident happened Sunday night when the officer, whose name was redacted from an arrest report, spotted a car driving erratically and made a traffic stop in the 2900 block of Northwest 55th Avenue.

The driver of the car, later identified as 44-year-old Tavaney Bodden, of Tamarac, got out of his car and "aggressively approached the officer's marked patrol car, the arrest report said.

Broward Sheriff's Office
Tavaney Bodden

The officer got out of his car and ordered Bodden to return to his car, but Bodden refused and pulled a can of mace out of his pocket, the report said.

Thbody camera footage from the officer, which was released Tursday, showed Bodden, who was wearing a shirt with a badge on it, pointing the can of mace at the officer.

"Put the mace away, put it away, I'm gonna tase you!" the officer shouts in the video.

"I'm gonna mace you," Bodden replies.

"Put it away, last time. Alright, Taser, Taser, Taser," the officer said in the video.

According to the report, the officer deployed his Taser, also known as a conducted energy weapon or CEW, at the same time Bodden pepper-sprayed him in the eyes.

After a brief struggle, the officer was able to take Bodden into custody.

"What's going on with you man? Are you diagnosed with something? Are you on drugs?" the officer asks Bodden as he radios in that he used his Taser and was maced.

When another officer arrives at the scene, the officer who was hit with the pepper spray says "I can't see."

As other officers respond, the initial officer who stopped Bodden is heard recounting what happened.

"He gets out of the car as he stops right here and just storms out of the f---ing car, comes right over to me," the officer says. "I see the badge, so I'm like what the f--- is going on, did I pull over an undercover? But then I could see he was like sweating and he was just weird."

The officer said he told Bodden multiple times to get back in the car but he refused.

"He goes reaching in his f---ing pocket, pulls out a f---ing bottle of mace, I told him like what the hell, so I switched to CEW and just f---ing tased him," the officer says.

Bodden was arrested and booked into jail on charges including aggravated battery on an officer and resisting an officer with violence.

"The officer did suffer injuries as it relates to the spray itself so he was actually temporarily blinded by the chemical spray," Lauderhill Police Maj. Mike Santiago said. "As you can see in the video, the officer continues handcuffing the individual even with his vision restricted."

Contact Us