The Seaside Police Department is reporting the arrest of three
suspects following a crash at approximately 5:11 p.m. Sunday on the
1200 block of Ord Grove Avenue.
Police
responding to a disturbance at the scene, found a vehicle crashed in
the median and the driver, Norris Kelly Jr., showing signs of
intoxication, police said.
Several bystanders, friends and
family of the driver, arrived on scene, police said, and Seaside
firefighters helped hold the crowd away from officers.
Kelly
resisted arrest, police said, and as a sergeant struggled on the ground
to handcuff him, Lorenzo Barnett and Natavia Kelly attempted to free
him.
Natavia Kelly kicked the sergeant in the head, police said, and he was taken to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula for treatment.
Three other officers received minor injuries, police said.
But according to Narlene Hughes, Norris' mother who was also at the scene, the officers handled the situation inappropriately.
"They
had (Norris) on his side when a fourth officer came in and put him on a
choke hold," Hughes said. "He was choking him, my daughter (Kelly) got
upset and started yelling 'you're killing him, you're killing him.'"
Hughes said foam was coming out of his son's mouth and his body was becoming limp.
Hughes
said she went to the scene because Norris had called her earlier that
day that a group of men were threatening to shoot him. When she arrived
at the scene, she saw her son had crashed his car and was standing in
the middle of the street with the officers when they tackled him to the
ground.
"He was upset," she said.
According
to the Seaside Police Department Norris Kelly, 30, was arrested on
suspicion of driving under the influence and resisting/obstructing a peace officer;
Lorenzo Barnett, 30, was arrested on suspicion of resisting/obstructing
a peace officer; and Natavia Kelly, 27, was arrested on suspicion of
battery on a peace officer and resisting/obstructing a peace officer.
Hughes said she plans to file a complaint against certain Seaside police officers regarding how they handled the situation.
"People saw what they were doing," she said. "They know what they did was wrong."