Video: Police Taser Man on American Flight After Racist Tirade, Sexual Assault

While American Airlines flight AA2446 from Miami to Chicago O’Hare was still at the gate last night the instigator of a ‘disagreement’ between two passengers was asked to get off the plane. He refused. And in a post-David Dao world airlines now deplane everyone when that happens, rather than starting off dragging the passenger down the aisle.

Now, disagreement is a great euphamism here, since another passenger explains that the man “sexually assaulted a female passenger and made racist remarks towards an American Airlines gate agent.”

And he wouldn’t just deplane when the airline told everyone to get off, either. A “fight broke out and police were called” out to the Boeing 737. At which point they were comfortable going all David Dao on the man, and most of you are probably going to be fine with that. Five officers responded, struggled to arrest the man, and are heard using tasers four times — once for 17 seconds.

The man asked police “What is the reason you’re removing me from this plane?” And one responds, “Well, you just assaulted a lady, for one.”

One officer in the video struggles with Garcia, gripping him around the neck, in an attempt to control him while two other officers work on cuffing him.

It appears only one cuff is on Garcia’s hand and he continues to struggle with the police, as one officer warns “don’t fight me.”

..The taser doesn’t appear to affect Garcia — at first — who calls the officer “a baby” and tried to grab the device out of the officers hand. Eventually, the taser does appear effective and officers were able to take Garcia into custody.

Here’s another video of the incident:

And here’s the man, in custody, being led off the jetway and into the terminal.

The flight departed about an hour late.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. @Greg
    Take it easy on Mike. His fragile ego might get hurt. Poor guy.

    Mike: Don’t worry about Greg. Go hop in your Hummer and cuddle your AR-15. It may be the only thing that loves you, but we’ll understand one day, won’t we? We’ll ALL understand, hmm?

  2. Garcia is lucky to be alive. At least one of the cops is armed. During the struggle he could have reached for a cops gun or a cop could claim he thought Garcia was reaching for his gun. If I understand the cops’ get-out-jail-free card, that would have give the cops just cause to kill him. Just claim to be in fear for one’s life.

    A struggle like that is highly dangerous for the other passengers.

  3. Just another day at American Airlines business as usual
    Be sure to keep making those seats smaller AA close encounters are always a pleasure
    Hopefully he gets his airline miles for the flight after all that ;):)
    Makes me glad I left the airline last year
    The guy should be banned from all airlines if he did do all the things he is accused of

  4. Sigh. Does anyone know what you have to do to get on the no-fly list? I’d say this guy qualifies.

  5. First, I’d like to know what he did. We used to know what sexual assault was. Now, in the insane world of 2018 where PC imbeciles are using the same term term, sexual assault, to describe both ACTUAL rape, calling a woman ‘honey’, or accidentally brushing against a woman. If he actually did something that was sexual assault- then warranted. Further, where is the “racist tirade”?

    I know one thing, if he were black, and all those officers were white, i can guarantee you that this video would be receiving a different reaction. This group think, wanna be on the right side of PC with my virtue signalling reaction that is 99% based upon the race of the person in the video is, frankly, the definition of racism. That officer was almost gleeful telling him he was ‘about to be tazed’. And the move to taser seemed awfully fast and over the top on an airplane. All I heard was the guy asking to be told why he was being arrested. I’d also want a specific answer.

    Again, If I am missing the part where we know what he actually did, please show me. If not, attempt to reverse the races in your mind and take a fresh look. Yeah, I know, impossible for the indoctrinated…

  6. Here, I’ll help you with the alternate headline had it been reversed:

    “Black man on plane get tasered repeatedly by several white cops for asking what he did wrong”.

    and… cue the nationwide protests in 3,2,1…

  7. @Christian. atta boy Captain GroupThink. Label someone taking an anti-racist position as racist. well done. not predictable at all. surprised you didn’t call me pro-rape with a #metoo hashtag. hint: telling the truth is not racist.

    oh, and as near as i can find, the ‘sexual assault’ was the guy who he was arguing with said he touched his gf. sexual assault? really, Gary? any rational human would agree that we need to quit watering down the term sexual assault. just ask any woman who has ACTUALLY been sexually assaulted. And I still can’t find what the guy said that was a “racist tirade”. It’s obscene what you left wing kooks are doing to, well… everything.

  8. When did things get so nasty in America? No, I’m referring to the Comments above, not the incident they have been stirred up by.

  9. I just read in another blog, that the cops were called when he tried to put his carryon in a MCE overhead bin.

  10. Obviously we do not know what transpired before this video. But it seems a bit much? I can’t imagine this happening elsewhere to be honest.

    What was the “sexual assault”, really? It’s really easy to label something “sexual assault” these days, whether it is actually one or not. It’s scary to think that a malicious lie/false accusation can end up screwing a guy’s life in a blink of an eye. Not saying that he didn’t do what he was accused of, but unless there is some evidence, it’s a bit of a sticky situation.

    I am the minority here, and I do think that this would’ve caused much bigger outrage if he was African American. But then the double standard is nothing new in this great country of America…

  11. Guess we’ll find out more when the lawsuits start to fly…until then I find it interesting how so many jump to conclusions.

Comments are closed.