Man captured in video slapped with 5 charges

A man captured in a widely circulated amateur video allegedly resisting arrest has been slapped with five charges.

He is Jamoy Estridge, a British Virgin Islands native who resides at Freshwater Pond, Tortola.

He has been granted $5,000 bail with one surety to appear in the Magistrate’s Court on April 7, said Information Officer at the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force Diane Drayton.

She added that Estridge was charged with:

1) Resisting Arrest

2) Failing to give name and address

3) Disorderly conduct

4) Failing to comply with a lawful order

5) And indecent language.

It is not clear how the incident involving Estridge started in Tortola on the night of February 18. The relatively short video of it seen by BVI News Online contains indecent language and so is not being published here.

But, in the footage, two police officers are seen trying to arrest Estridge beside a wooden fence. The persons doing the recording can be heard urging Estridge to tell the cops his name or be arrested.

“My name is Jamoy Estridge,” he eventually said in a relatively low tone before he is shot once with a taser and taken away in a pair of handcuffs.

Estridge is at least the second person to be slapped with various charges in incidents that have been videotaped and circulated by residents within the past few weeks.

Following an earlier incident in the Long Bush area this month, police arrested and charged biker Ashemba Frett for six alleged offences. He is yet to appear in the Magistrate’s Court.

A number of other amateur videos surfaced recently showing standoffs between police and civilians. But it is not clear if other civilians been charged.