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A cell phone video (below) showing a crowd yelling at a deputy while he arrests Jesse Valdez inside the Willowbrook Mall in Houston on Sept. 19 has gone viral.

The video was filmed by Valdez's brother, Michael Roulhac, who asked the Harris County deputy at least 20 times why he was arresting his sibling, notes the Houston Chronicle.

Early in the video, the deputy says that he is arresting Valdez for not obeying his orders, but doesn't say what those orders are.

Valdez was riding a mini Segway, also known as a hoverboard, in the mall when he was confronted by the deputy.

"The officer asked me to get off the Segway, and I asked him if this is a rule, or the law that I have to get off the Segway," Valdez said at a press conference on Sept. 21, notes ABC 13. "Instead of politely answering my question, he used force and took me off the Segway."

After handcuffing Valdez, the deputy keeps his knee planted in the young man's back. Later in the video, he aims a Taser at point-blank range in Valdez's back, causing the crowd to yell.

Mall security guards came on the scene with dogs, and formed a circle around the deputy and Valdez.


Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said that Valdez was detained for disorderly conduct, and arrested for resisting arrest.

Roulhac may be charged with inciting a riot and interfering with an arrest.

"I was completely unknowing of anything, charges brought against me," Roulhac said at the press conference. "I don't feel like I, in anyway interfered in the arrest, considering when I did record the video, he was already in handcuffs."

Herman said the dogs were under the control of mall security.

A Willowbrook Mall spokesperson would only say: "We cannot discuss our specific public safety plans because by doing so would compromise our efforts."

However, the Willowbrook Mall is not a law enforcement agency tasked with enforcing public safety.