‘It’s horrific.’ Meridian man faces trial after police officer pressed knee into his neck

Just after 6:30 p.m. on a sunny Sunday in late June, Meridian Police Officer Bradley Chambers responded to a dirt-bike accident.

Parks Allen, 16, had lost control of his dirt bike on a residential street, struck a utility pole and injured his hand and foot. As he was taken by ambulance to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, three of his brothers rushed to the scene. They found the motorcycle down the street where it had been moved by neighbors and began to load it into the bed of their truck.

“That’s not gonna work,” Chambers told the brothers as he stepped out of his police car, according to police body-camera footage. “Take it out of the truck.” The brothers questioned the command. “It’s our property,” Gannon Allen, 18, said while videotaping the interaction.

The oldest brother, Samson, asked Chambers if he wanted to take photographs of the bike, which weighs over 200 pounds. “I’m not unloading it and then loading it again,” Samson said.

Roughly one minute into the interaction, Chambers came up behind Samson, ordered him to step away from the truck, and grabbed his right wrist. Chambers forced Samson to the ground and began to press his knee into the 21-year-old’s neck. He kept it there for nearly a minute.

Videos of the incident quickly circulated online, became viral and sparked outrage over police use of force. Samson’s parents say the Meridian Police Department’s report on the incident distorts some details and omits others. Samson awaits trial on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing justice.

Meridian police say they are conducting an internal review of the incident. And Chambers? He is now in training for his new job – at the Boise Police Department.

Parents concerned over ‘horrific’ use of force

In the four months since the incident on Ensenada Drive in North Meridian, Samson’s parents, Chris and Rachel Allen, have raised concerns publicly.

Chris Allen told the Idaho Statesman that red flags about the circumstances of his son’s arrest weren’t immediately clear to him.

“Just imagine this,” he said. “You get a call on a Sunday afternoon.” Allen described learning that his son, Parks, had been injured in a bike crash. His wife, Rachel, hurried to the scene and went with Parks and paramedics to the hospital. Home with their daughter, Allen said he started receiving text messages from his sons saying, “Samson just got arrested.”

“I’m like, ‘Oh, dear, what did you do?’’, Allen said. “Like, the natural reaction from the dad is: My kids screwed up. What did they do, you know?”

That reaction, Allen said, “will tell you how I’m not against police.”

It wasn’t until watching his sons’ videos of the arrest – which have since been viewed by over 3 million people on YouTube – that he realized something was wrong.

Allen said he watches the incident himself “all the time,” shocked each time he reaches the point where Chambers presses his knee into Samson’s neck. Allen said he is “disgusted” by the use of knee-on-neck pressure, which has been widely discouraged by many police departments since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020 using the same tactic.

“I can’t tell you how many people, right when it gets to the knee on the neck: ‘Oh, I can’t watch it, I can’t watch’ … It’s horrific,” Allen said.

He said Chambers’ use of force left Samson with a concussion. Chambers’ police report, obtained by the Statesman, includes images of bruises on Samson’s head and arm.

But Allen is not only concerned about the use of what can be fatal force. He is also concerned about how the department handled its investigation into the incident and how that’s shaken his and other community members’ trust in police.

Police body-camera footage from the incident was obtained by John H. Bryan, a West Virginia-based civil rights lawyer, who posted it on YouTube. Meridian police denied the Statesman’s request for the footage on the grounds that it pertains to an active criminal court case. Allen provided the Statesman with videos taken by two of his sons and with Chambers’ body and vehicle-dashboard cameras.

What the police report says

Court documents obtained by the Statesman include Chambers’ affidavit of probable cause. It identifies the brothers’ refusal to remove the bike from the truck as an obstruction of his investigation and cites Samson’s “tensing his body, arching his back and pulling away from me” as resistance.

In a police report of the June 30 incident, Chambers wrote that he needed to examine the dirt bike because it had been involved in an injury accident – and because riding a dirt bike on city streets is illegal.

“Having the bike removed would allow me more room to take the appropriate photographs of the bike and inspect the areas damaged during the collision,” Chambers wrote.

“Based on the bike being taken from the scene prior to our arrival and being loaded up in a truck before anyone made contact, I was concerned they were trying to get the bike from the scene as soon as possible,” he wrote.

Chambers wrote that he told the brothers to remove the bike from the truck multiple times and that “it was becoming clear they were not going to do what I was asking.” He wrote that he thought he heard Samson and his brother Gannon “mention something about tying the bike down.”

That’s when he approached Samson, telling him to step back. According to Chambers’ report, Samson put his hands up. Chambers grabbed Samson’s wrist and Samson resisted. Feeling “outnumbered” by the other two Allen brothers, who were videotaping the altercation at a close distance, Chambers swept Samson’s legs out from under him and forced him to the ground.

“Having been in situations where subjects who refuse to comply have family or friends close by, I know there is an increased risk of them becoming involved or turning on me,” Chambers said.

At that point, a neighbor, Sam Harbin, rushed to the scene to assist Chambers, pushing the other Allen brothers back.

Chambers drew his taser, the brothers moved back, and Chambers placed his knee on Samson’s neck before other officers arrived. Chambers’ report says Samson resisted throughout the arrest and “at no point” did Samson “relax his arms or comply by putting them behind his back as I commanded.”

‘Conveniently ignored’: Omissions in the report?

Chris Allen says several details are “conveniently ignored” in the report.

He notes that only minutes before the incident, police body-camera footage shows Chambers speaking to neighborhood kids, who tell him that they – not the Allen brothers – removed the bike from the scene and brought it up the street. Allen said the notion that his sons were trying to flee the scene with the bike is “mind-boggling.”

Allen said his son Parks had already admitted to riding the dirt bike, a citable offense, and that his sons were more concerned with “getting to the hospital” than with getting out of a ticket.

“Do they really think that by taking the bike and getting it out of there, that kid on the ground on the stretcher that has his mom right there, like, do they think he’s going anywhere?” he said. “They already talked to him, and, you know, he’s already acknowledged everything that he did.”

Body-camera footage and video taken by Gannon also show no mention of the brothers tying the bike down. Instead, they tried to stop the bike’s gasoline valve from leaking on the truck bed.

“Gannon, can you come turn off the gas? I can’t reach it,” Samson says as Chambers stands at the back of the truck examining the bike.

Allen also questions the police’s choice of a “star witness”: Harbin, the neighbor who arrived once Chambers had forced Samson to the ground.

Chambers’ report says Gannon “became aggressive and threatening with Harbin,” but police video and videos from the Allen brothers show Harbin approaching Gannon, pushing him and telling him, “If you touch that cop, I’ll hit you.” The two argued.

Officers took a witness statement from Harbin but not from either of the Allen brothers. Gannon attempted to show police his video of the arrest and was told by another officer, “You don’t know what we know,” according to a video provided by Chris Allen from another of his sons.

The Statesman was unable to reach Harbin to request a comment.

Police, mayor’s office decline comment

Chris Allen says an incident like this can damage community trust when leaders fail to “own up” or accept accountability.

He points to Meridian’s core values – community service, accountability, respect and excellence, or CARE – and says he wants to see leaders step up to those ideals and admit that “sometimes we’re imperfect.”

A spokesperson for the Meridian Police Department told BoiseDev in October that the department’s Office of Professional Standards would review the incident and the use of force. Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea told the Statesman that he cannot comment until after Samson’s trial.

Asked if he could comment more generally on the department’s use-of-force policy or review processes, Basterrechea told the Statesman via email, “I think it would be very difficult to separate the Chambers incident from the broader topic.”

Lt. Jeff Brown, who heads the Office of Professional Standards, said he was unable to comment either. Mayor Robert Simison’s chief of staff, David Miles, also declined to comment.

Meridian use-of-force policy

Brown pointed a Statesman reporter to the department’s policy manual, which says a use of force is evaluated on whether it “reasonably appears necessary given the facts and circumstances perceived by the officer at the time of the event to accomplish a legitimate law enforcement purpose.”

The policy’s section on pain compliance techniques states, “Officers may only apply those pain compliance techniques for which they have successfully completed department-approved training.”

The policy makes no reference to knee-on-neck pressure but says officers should avoid “any technique that restricts blood flow to the head [or] restricts respiration.”

Gary Raney, who was Ada County sheriff for 10 years and who now consults on criminal justice practices, told the Statesman that knee-on-neck pressure “is not a taught nor sanctioned use-of-force technique” in the Treasure Valley.

BPD on its new trainee

The Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training denied the Statesman’s public records request for Chambers’ training and disciplinary record, citing Idaho Code §74-106(9) exempting disclosure of “a person’s fitness to be granted or retain a license.”

Haley Williams, a spokesperson for the Boise Police Department, told the Statesman via email that “BPD conducted a thorough background investigation on Officer Chambers just as we do for all candidates.”

“BPD does require officers to have an Idaho POST Certification and, if they are a lateral officer, to have left their former agency in good standing,” Williams said. “As part of the background investigation, BPD background investigators speak with former agencies and review an applicant’s file with that agency.”

Boise police denied the Statesman’s request to seek comment from Chambers.

A Meridian Police Department Facebook post says Chambers graduated from the Meridian-Nampa Joint Patrol Academy and joined the department in 2022. A 2018 article in the Napa Valley Register in Northern California shows a ride-along with Chambers, then a sergeant in the American Canyon Police Department.

Policing experts weigh in

Policing experts say restoring trust with community members is crucial in cases concerning police use of force, even if an officer’s actions are legal.

According to Bill King, chair of the criminal justice department at Boise State University, an officer’s use of force is lawful in Idaho if it is “objectively reasonable as determined by that officer at that moment of time.”

He told the Statesman that the law – Idaho Code §19-610, which he says is “pretty vague” – is interpreted based on precedent from the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court Case Graham v. Connor, which does not allow for “hindsight” evaluation.

“If you come back later and try to review it, you’re not in the mindset of that officer,” King said. “It tends to really give the officer a lot of leeway in using force.”

He said three factors from that case, known as the Graham factors, are widely used to evaluate use of force: the severity of the crime, the threat posed by a suspect, and whether a suspect was resisting.

David Makin, a professor of criminal justice at Washington State University, runs a research lab studying police interactions with the public. Makin told the Statesman that his research evaluates use-of-force incidents based on three pillars: accountability, transparency and adherence to the rule of law.

Makin said “explaining the law” and having public dialogue is “absolutely essential” when responding to a use-of-force incident.

When concerns around an officer’s use of force are raised, a typical course of action would be an internal or external review of the incident to see if it was lawful and if it aligns with department policy, he said. According to Makin, outcomes might include sanctioning an officer or making changes to department policy or training processes.

“We have to learn” from use-of-force incidents, he said. “Each and every time. Are you learning something new about how to refine, revise, improve, modify your use-of-force policy, your training or your risk mitigation strategies? If you’re not, then you’re missing a critical component of being a professional organization, reducing liability risk and improving community trust.”

What could happen?

In the case of Samson Allen’s arrest, potential department sanctions to the officer – which might typically include probation or additional training – are off the table, since Chambers no longer works there.

But Makin says broader conversations around policy are “arguably one of the most critical components” of an incident response.

“Far too often, what’ll happen is they’ll say, ‘This was in policy or not within policy,’ and that’s all the public gets,” Makin said. “It leaves this nagging feeling of, ‘How can something that looks like that be within policy?’

“The way that you mitigate that is by being incredibly detailed and explaining, ‘Here’s our policy … here’s what we did, here’s what we found, here’s what we learned.’”

Chris Allen said he has yet to receive that explanation.

“It puts cops in an even more dangerous position than they are or perceive to be most of the time,” he told the Statesman via text message. “And it sows the deep seeds of resentment in especially the younger generation, which is just incredibly short-sighted.”

“They can have as many ‘cone with a cop’ days or coffee days … but how fast does that just evaporate when that same community learns of what just occurred in their backyard, and these public officials don’t respond?” Allen said.

Beyond the Meridian review, Chambers’ use of force will be evaluated through Samson’s criminal trial, which will determine if Samson committed a crime. Chris Allen said he has thought about filing a complaint with the department or suing, too, but to date has not done either.

Raney told the Statesman he believes building community trust is important to Meridian police.

“The video is likely concerning to anybody who who views it,” Raney said. “However, we don’t know all the facts with just the video. The Meridian Police Department has a long history of providing good service and holding their officers accountable, so the chief deserves the opportunity to gather all of those facts and do his own analysis and determine what the right course of action is.

“Meridian Police has put tremendous effort into building community relationships and establishing trust with the community. I believe the chief will be forthright about this event and try to continue to build that trust, regardless of whether it was handled correctly or incorrectly.”

Samson Allen prepares for trial

Samson Allen’s trial was previously set for Wednesday, Nov. 13, but was delayed on Friday to an unknown date in late January. The trial is planned to be held at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise and presided over by Magistrate Judge Michael Lojek. The Boise City Attorney’s office will prosecute the case.

Court documents obtained by the Statesman show the prosecutors filed a “motion in limine” on Oct. 18 – a type of motion that disqualifies certain facts from being discussed in a case.

The motion attempted to restrict any discussion or evidence of excessive force, according to an objection by the defense filed Nov. 5. Lojek has yet to rule on the motion.

Samson, now 22, was previously represented by public defender Alex DeVille but has secured private counsel from Ryan Black, a partner at Attorneys of Idaho. The State Public Defender Office did not respond to the Statesman’s request for comment.