Video does not show arrest of NFL prospect Stetson Bennett

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 3, 2023 at 15:52
2 min read
By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

Social media users are claiming a video of police tackling a man to the ground shows the January 29, 2023 arrest of two-time American college football national champion Stetson Bennett for public intoxication in Dallas, Texas. This is false; the clip is from the police dashcam footage of the arrest of another athlete, Baker Mayfield, in 2017, when he was the star quarterback at the University of Oklahoma.

"Police dashcam video of Stetson Bennett tackled by Dallas police and arrested for public intoxication," says one January 29, 2023 tweet sharing the video, which received more than 4.3 million views.

Similarly captioned posts spread across Twitter and other social media platforms, including Facebook and TikTok.

The video, captured from a police dashcam, shows officers engaging with a man in a hooded sweatshirt before tackling him against a wall as he attempts to flee the scene.

But the clip has been misrepresented online; it does not show Bennett, who led the University of Georgia to consecutive NCAA championships as their quarterback and is projected to be drafted into the National Football League later this year.

Screenshot from Twitter taken February 2, 2023

The original footage depicts Mayfield's February 25, 2017 arrest in Fayetteville, Arkansas, according to reverse image searches conducted using the video's keyframes.

Then a star at the college level, Mayfield reached a plea deal in June 2017 and paid a series of fines to settle charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He went on to become the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns and finished the past season with the Los Angeles Rams.

"It's not Stetson," Todd Shapiro, Bennett's attorney, said of the video, in an email to AFP. "That video is Baker Mayfield."

Shapiro added: "We are not aware of any video of Mr Bennett's arrest at this time."

Kristin Lowman, public information officer for the Dallas Police Department, which arrested Bennett, separately confirmed to AFP that the video circulating online is not from the Dallas police.

The department said in a press statement that its officers responded to reports of a man banging on doors at approximately 6:10 am (1210 GMT) on January 29, 2023.

"The preliminary investigation found when officers arrived, they located the man, Stetson Bennett, 25, and determined he was intoxicated. Bennett was taken into custody, transported to the City Detention Center and charged with Public Intoxication," the statement said.

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