A month ago, 7News told you about 27 year-old Brandon Tillett, AKA, "BT" who the Gang Suppression Unit charged with deportation offences.
The GSU says that he is a member of the George Street Gang, and after a confrontation today between him and officers of the Unit, he says that he is being targeted and harassed by the GSU.
It all unfolded at Tillett's friend's home on Allenby Street this morning, where the homeowner, Jermaine Ottley, was getting ready to go Magistrate's Court for a case being brought by the GSU.
The GSU was conducting an operation, which quickly turned into a confrontation, where both Tillett and Ottley were allegedly brutalized by the officers.
7News caught up with Ottley outside of the KHMH, where the Gang Suppression Unit was holding Tillett under guard so that he could receive medical treatment from injuries they allegedly gave to him.
Here's how Ottley explained it in an off-camera interview:
Voice of: Jermaine Ottley - Claims Police Brutality
"I was at my house getting ready to come out and GSU came and asked me to open the door and I did so, politely. They came in and didn't say anything to us and they just put us on our knees and started to beat us badly. We weren't resisting them any at all because we can't resist them because it was five of them with guns. We were on our knees and they were just beating us. Two of them were beating us up and two others were beating my friend at the corner. When I knelt down, an officer came and beat me up badly and took the stuff out of my own house and broke it on me - took out his service weapon and put it on my forehead and told me he would kill me."
Voice of: Lavern Olivera - Close family friend of BT
"His name is Brandon Tillett."
Reporter
"What happened this morning?"
Voice of: Lavern Olivera
"Well, this morning when I got up I got a call; one of our family called and told me to go to the hospital. Well when I got to the hospital - because anything concerning him regarding hospital or court, I am right there for him. So when I got in there I saw him was beaten up, I couldn't take it - I had to walk out. The way he was beaten up and bleeding - I almost asked him what happened but then when I turned around and I told my daughter that the GSU took chance of him - they said 'so you want to go too then?' I told them that I didn't have anything to do with them and I sent in my daughter to see what was the thing that was set up with his lawyer. He told my daughter that he was at a house and the police just came in and he got beaten, he's really beaten."
Voice of: Jermaine Ottley
"Well when they came in, they told us they were conducting a search - two of them came up to me and started to beat me up and three of them went to him and started to beat him up. They burst his face open, they took him outside and told him they would shoot him and really brutalized him. They put a gun to his head and threatened him and told him they would end his life. He had some bad cut on his face where they beat him and burst his face open and he got weak with the amount of blood he was loosing. They had to bring him to the hospital and they didn't conduct the search or told us anything - they didn't show us any warrant. This is a frequent thing that happens in our area, every time GSU comes out they come with a vendetta to go around the area to break up and brutalize everyone or anyone they see. I don't know what type of vendetta they have against this area."
And today, these men were not the only ones who had an issue with the way the GSU conducted their police work.
We were called out to Kraal Road, where 51 year-old Emmanuel Robinson and 27 year-old Keon Gibson told us that GSU officers conducted an inappropriate strip search on them inside their yard, and apparently in front of minors. These men say that the GSU did this only to embarrass them and to "show them whose boss".
Here's how they explained this search:
Emmanuel Robinson - Claims Inappropriate Police Behavior
"This morning around 10:30 and 11:00, the men came into the yard and they laid us down on the ground here. They got me out of the house, I was putting on a noodle soup (you know how poor men have to do it) - they laid us down and they made us take off our pants and our boxers and we had to squat in front of minors, a lot of kids were over by the street - we had people from upstairs looking down on us. They had us squatting and coughing like when you're in prison - those things aren't right. "
Daniel Ortiz
"I understand they naked you all"
Emmanuel Robinson
"Half naked because we had on our shirts still but we took off our pants and boxers, it's a man's pride they took away. What kind of rights do we have on the streets? None at all? They were teasing and talking about our private parts and they called the officer (pointing) and said 'look at that - what is that?' "
Keon Gibson - Claims Inappropriate Behavior
"They came and told me to take off my pants - they stripped searched us out here in front of kids. It's not right; do you know how I feel to have to strip around men? That hurt me."
Daniel Ortiz
"Whenever brings these things to them, they say that they are just gang people. Have you guys ever been associated with any gang activities?"
Keon Gibson
"We're not in any gang - we just hang around here, associate with each other - we don't give trouble, do you hear us killing people? We don't do that, we just relax and associate with each other but whenever they come they take chance of us and we don't like that, we're tired of it."
