Mother says Arlington cops took phone after she videoed sons’ arrests

DALLAS (AP) — A woman says police in Arlington offered to drop charges against her two teenage sons in exchange for cellphone video she shot that she says shows an officer needlessly pushing her older son to the ground and arresting him.

The Next Generation Action Network, a Dallas-based group that lobbies against police violence, posted the video on its Facebook page Wednesday and scheduled a news conference for Thursday that will include the boys’ mother, Latasha Nelson.

Dominique Alexander, a group spokesman, says Nelson alleges that police took her cellphone while making the July 3 arrests and offered to drop the charges in exchange for the video when she went to retrieve her phone. He says the video was backed up to the cloud, which enabled her to let the group post it online.

A police spokeswoman, Sgt. VaNessa Harrison, said Thursday that the department is “looking into the situation.”