According to John Paff, who filed an Open Public Records Act request to obtain body camera footage of the incident, the event occurred at about 5 a.m. at the Riggins service station on West Broad Street, Bridgeton which is across the street from the Cumberland County Courthouse.
Two men were in a 1996 Buick that had run out of fuel. The men, who appeared to be intoxicated, told officers that they were waiting for the Riggins station to open so that they could purchase fuel. During an investigation, police discovered an empty whiskey bottle on the floor of the Buick, Paff reported.
Initially, instead of arresting the men, the responding officers simply cited the two men and told them to call someone to come get them. The two men were told explicitly not to drive the car.
However, because the car was at the pump, Marty Drummond, who was clearly drunk, got in and moved the car to the side of the gas station. This caused the officers to move in for arrest after witnessing him drive drunk.
"Do you wanna feel pain, sir?" Bridgeton police officer John R. Grier said to his future victim as he seemingly salivated over the idea to hurt someone weaker than him.
Because Drummond was so drunk, he was slow to move. He did not appear to understand why police were arresting him either, so he asked repeatedly what he did wrong.
At this point, officer Grier and officer Ronald F. Broomall were trying to get Drummond into the back of the police cruiser. Likely due to his bad hip, Drummond was apparently not moving fast enough which caused Grier to blow a fuse.
Grier then aimed the pepper spray directly at Drummond's face and unleashed a massive stream of the chemical agent into the eyes of his victim. Grier's sadistic use of pepper spray then backfired, however, as in his fit of rage, he hit his fellow cop too.
Officer Broomall was so thrown off by the pepper spray that he had to walk away to catch his breath. Now, Grier was alone with the clearly disoriented Drummond.
"Now! How do you like it now?!" yells the sadistic cop as he tortures a handcuffed, inebriated, but entirely non-violent man with pepper spray.
Grier is then seen moving in for a second dose of spray. This time, however, he holds the canister at point-blank range to inflict the most damage possible. The dose is so much that Drummond can barely breathe, much less see.
Drummond is so disoriented at this point that he can no longer see where or how to get all the way into the cruiser and he simply lays down on the seat in agony. But Grier was just getting started.
"Pull your legs in. Now!" barks Grier. "I'm going to give it to you again!" Grier says before Broomall calls him off.
"No John! Back Off!" yells Broomall, doing what a good cop is supposed to do and prevent fellow cops from senseless hurting others.
Broomall then walks around to the other side of the vehicle and helps the incapacitated Drummond into the back seat while continuing to try to calm down his fellow cop who appeared to be stuck in a fit of rage.
Drummond was subsequently arrested and charged with DUI and resisting arrest.
As Paff reported, the complaint-summons for the resisting charge claimed that the man was "resisting arrest by refusing to enter into the patrol vehicle after being arrested for DWI." Grier's Affidavit of Probable Cause claimed that the man "was advised to be seated inside the patrol vehicle numerous times, at which time he refused."
Below is an example of how dangerous a police officer can be when they lose control and start doling out punishment. The pepper spray did nothing to get Drummond in the car faster and only served to inflict pain and endanger a fellow cop.
Here is the view from Grier's body camera:
Here is the view from Broomall's body camera:
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