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[h1] Jason Goolsby: "I Feared For My Life. I Didn't Want To Die"[/h1][h2]BY RACHEL SADON IN NEWS ON OCT 15, 2015 3:00 PM[/h2]
Jason Goolsby.
From the start, the encounter that prompted the #JusticeforJason online and in-person protests was punctuated by fear, UDC President Ronald Mason, Jr. said today at a press conference in which Jason Goolsby and his lawyer, Peter Grenier, told their side of the story.
In Grenier's telling, Goolsby, along with an unnamed friend and Michael Brown, who recorded the now-viral video of Goolsby's detention, had already gone to a volunteer orientation that morning to help counsel other teens about safe sex practices and preventing AIDS. The volunteer coordinator had been so grateful for their help that she took them out to lunch.
Goolsby, an aspiring hip hop artist, had a studio session that he needed to pay for planned that evening, so he next headed over to the Citibank at 600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE to withdraw money, he says. But while he was in the vestibule, he got a text message from the studio owner saying that something had come up and they'd need to postpone the session.
As the 18-year-old UDC student decided whether he still wanted to take out the cash, he saw a white couple headed toward the ATM with their baby, Grenier said. Instinctively, Goolsby opened the door for them to make it easier to get the stroller through.
Once they were inside, he didn't exchange any words with the family. Be he did think it was strange when the woman said she had forgotten something in the car and headed out without doing their clearly intended errand of taking out money.
D.C. Police said in a statement that they got a call "for a suspicious person, three subjects may be trying to rob people at the ATM." The Washington Post reports that the 911 caller told the operator: “We just left but we felt like if we had taken money out we might’ve gotten robbed.”
Unaware of the call, Gooslby then left himself and was heading toward a 90 bus stop to visit his brother at Howard University when a fast-moving police SUV headed straight toward him, his lawyer said. Thinking that the car was about to run him over, he quickly jumped on the curb and was both scared and bewildered when the white police officer driving the car demanded he get on the ground.
"I seen a gun and pepper spray," Goolsby said. "I feared for my life. I didn’t want to die."
According to Grenier: "He was well aware of the Freddie Gray incident, as well as numerous other incident of police brutality. He truly believed [the officer] was going to shoot him."
So he ran. The moments after police catch up to him is where the publicly released video begins. Goolsby can be seen twisting in pain while Brown shouts that his friend didn't do anything.
According to their lawyer, Goolsby and Brown were detained for two hours, shackled together and repeatedly ignored when they asked what they had done wrong. After a supervisor came, the pair was told they were free to go; the whole thing had been a "misunderstanding."
When Goolsby asked again what they had supposedly done, "the officer told him 'a woman called and said that you made her feel uncomfortable,'" Grenier said. "That is what caused this unspeakable series of events that will forever scar Jason and Michael."
"Under our laws, being black does not constitute probable cause to arrest or detain someone," he said. "I have zero doubt that if these young men were white, none of this would have happened."
Grenier said the city has been notified of potential legal action, but they are continuing to investigate before filing suit. "Jason has sought medical treatment for his arm, but the physical pain pales to the psychological and emotional pain that he has suffered," he said.
Meanwhile, the department is "reviewing the circumstances surrounding the stop to ensure that policies and procedures were followed," said a spokesman for MPD, Lt. Sean Conboy.
Goolsby himself was mostly quiet and seemingly contemplative during the press conference. When asked what he would say to the woman who presumably made the call that resulted in his detention, Goolsby said he wasn't sure yet what he would want to tell her. But he was clear about one thing: "I just don't want this to ever happen again. I want to see justice."
So, too, do the dozens of local activists who turned out for a protest on Tuesday through the area where the encounter took place, and the thousands of people who have taken to using the #JusticeforJason hashtag. The case has gotten national attention, with actress Gabrielle Union joining those expressing outrage.
UDC President Ronald Mason, Jr. said at the conference today that among the problems the incident represents is that America "fails to see the true potential that men like Jason and Michael represent— bright, engaged artists and scholars."
Grenier went to great lengths to show photos and videos of the pair to the audience: a clip of Goolsby rapping about how awesome his school is and a photo of him performing at the D.C. education festival, a video Brown made set to Evanescence and a photo of him at the White House at Michelle Obama's invitation.
But the white woman who apparently called the cops when she saw three black men at an ATM "saw what America has taught her to see," Mason Jr. said. "She felt what America has taught her to feel. And she did what America has taught her to do. Similarly with the police. ... Fear is the dominant theme of this entire event."
As for Gooslby and Brown, Mason Jr. said, "they were taught that when police cars drive up on black men, they have good reason to be afraid."
