A protester accused of assaulting police while being taken
into custody in a case of mistaken identity is now protesting police brutality
in D.C.
Craig Wilson, a protester in town for a conference, had been
in D.C. for about two hours Saturday when police tried to arrest him at the
Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill because he matched the description of a
person who committed a homicide.
Wilson resisted arrest, police said. Police wrongfully
roughed him up and pepper-sprayed him, Wilson said.
“You can look at me and see that there was excessive force
used, at minimum, and there was some misconduct, at minimum, and it shouldn’t
happen,” Wilson said.
Police later determined Wilson, a 42-year-old from New York,
was the wrong man, but they did charge him with misdemeanor assault of a police
officer.
“I was not the guy,” Wilson said Monday. “They never, ever
even apologized or admitted that they made a mistake, right, and they wanted to
charge me with assault.”
Others joined Wilson Monday in protesting D.C. police at
headquarters and again at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is reviewing the assault charge.