Olympic sprinter and medalist Fred Kerley was tased by Miami Beach police in a chaotic scene caught on viral video.
Cleo Rahman, identified by TMZ as Kerley’s girlfriend, posted videos and photos from the scene on her Instagram story along with a story reporting that she was also arrested. TMZ dubbed the scene a “wild fight” between Kerley and police in Florida.
“Free my man,” Rahman wrote with a heart emoji, accusing the police of “police brutality on Black men.” The video showed a group of police officers wrestling with a subject on the ground. “Block was hot,” she wrote with another video that showed a massive law enforcement response to the scene. She asked what she was arrested for in a caption and wrote, “Recording?”
The main video also circulated widely on X.
The incident involved the Miami Beach Police Department, which released body cam footage. CBS Miami aired the body cam video and reported that Kerley is accused of “assaulting a police officer” and resisting arrest.
Miami Beach Police Accused Fred Kerley of Battering a Police Officer
CBS Miami reported that police say they were justified in making the arrest, but Kerley’s girlfriend disputes that. He had approached a crime scene and tried to find out about his parked car and then refused to leave, the station reported.
Police told CBS Miami that he “fought” with officers.
“Mr. Kerley did batter one of our officers by pushing him in his chest at which point our officers went hands on to detain the subject,” a police spokesman said in the CBS Miami interview. Kerley was then tased and arrested, the spokesman told the television station. The spokesman said the officers tried “multiple times” to deescalate the situation.
In the video, Kerley cries out about his legs, the CBS Miami interview shows.
“He’s Team USA,” Rahman told CBS Miami. According to USA Today, Kerley was taken to jail and then released on accusations of “battery upon a law enforcement officer, which is a third-degree felony, as well as resisting an officer and disorderly conduct, which are misdemeanors.”
Yale Sanford, Kerley’s attorney, told USA Today, “It just goes to show you that no matter how hard you work, or how many medals you earn for your country, in Miami Beach last night, my client was treated like millions of African-Americans around the country — with a lack of humanity, compassion and respect.”
Miami Beach police spokesperson Christopher Bess told USA Today that officers “responded to the resistance appropriately and professionally.” A police report obtained by USA Today described Kerley as having an “aggressive demeanor.”
Fred Kerley Won a Bronze Medal at the Paris Olympics
GettyFred Kerley.
Kerley placed third, winning a bronze medal, in the Men’s 100m final results at the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to USA Today.
Kerley is also a silver medalist.
“Fred Kerley is on track to being the fastest man in the world,” Olympics.com reported. “The versatile sprinter is already one of only three men who’ve run a sub-10 second race in the 100m a sub-20-second race in the 200m and a sub-44 second race in the 400m.”
“He began his Olympic career by winning silver in the 100m at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021. He led an American sweep of medals in the men’s 100m at the 2022 World championships for his second world title and fourth medal at the event. His first major career medal was the bronze medal in the 4x400m relay from London 2017,” Olympics.com reported. “Two years later at Doha 2019, he claimed his first individual world medal, a bronze, and was part of Team USA that topped the men’s 4x400m podium.”
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