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Armstrong Strong-armed By Strike Team
posted (November 18, 2016)
Last night we told you about the police CHARM week planned for next week. But, Eastern Division cops will have to do a lot of charming to win over Brian Armstrong. The 29-year-old Rocky Road resident says the Southside Strike Team chanced and charged him for doing nothing more than hanging out at his house. Here's how he put it today:...

Brian Armstrong, Accused of Assault & Loitering
"I was in the building of my apartment downstairs when this guy just came, punched me in my mouth for no reason."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Unprovoked? No reason?"

Brian Armstrong
"No reason."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"The guy is a police officer?"

Brian Armstrong
"He's on Strike Team. I asked him 'What's your deal, that's how you start your morning?', then he punched me two more times. He damaged me and did a lot of things to me. So I grabbed his two hands and he said that's assault."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Then he's also accusing you of loitering."

Brian Armstrong
"Yes in my own apartment."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"So now you're at court this morning for charges?"

Brian Armstrong
"Yes he looked at me and told me we'll talk at the station. When I arrived there he told them that I resisted arrest. How can I resist arrest when I walked with you to go to the station? if I was showing resist they'd have to send for backup. I did 14 years, I came out here a year and change. I don't have a charge on any of those charges, I did nothing to those guys."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"So now when you say all this Chester is going about meet and greet community friendly policing, how do you feel about all of that knowing what you're going through?"

Brian Armstrong
"Well he hasn't come on my side. They take my side for a bad seat, Rocky Road, Canal Side. No minister, nobody comes to do anything for us. We take our own struggles but they're coming to harass me for nothing. J'ouvert morning they came and beat me bad with pepper spray and I said nothing. The next week they come again and beat me bad, I said nothing. They came for me again last week, beat me bad and I still said nothing. I'm tired of those guys, what do they want to do? Kill me or make me kill one of them? Because that's all it can be. I'm ready to die, I'm not afraid of dying."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"They don't stone an empty mango tree, maybe you got some illicit activity that you were involved in."

Brian Armstrong
"I'm not a crime man, I don't do crime. They can't see any record from my record, that's for self-defense."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Okay but maybe they feel marijuana moving in that area."

Brian Armstrong
"We don't even have weed to smoke, we have to go far to buy weed. The point is he's 21, I'm 29, I'm a big man. I have 3 kids and he's a younger guy than me. He doesn't even have respect for himself."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"But how are you 29 and you said you went in for 14 years?"

Brian Armstrong
"Because I went to jail from I was 14."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"So you spent half your life in jail?"

Brian Armstrong
"Yes, so I'm not into any problem."

In 2001, Armstrong - then just 14 was accused of fatally shooting 33 year old David Ramirez. He was charged for murder but convicted of the lesser offence of manslaughter for which he spent half his life, 14 years in jail. He first came to us complaining about police abuse in 2015, when he said he was being harassed daily and extorted.

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