Bakersfield Californian 2013/05/10: Debate erupts over cell phone video of Silva beating by officers ...

Bakersfield Californian (5/10/2013): Debate erupts over cell phone video of Silva beating by officers. Witness: "I can still hear him."

A war of words erupted Friday over video footage taken of David Sal Silva’s deadly encounter with law enforcement officers.​

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On a day when several people gathered for a memorial event at the site of Silva’s fatal beating and the first audio and video surfaced, an attorney for his family demanded access to videos taken by bystanders while the Kern County sheriff pleaded for patience.​

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At a news conference at his downtown Bakersfield office, attorney David Cohn, representing the Silva family, said the videos were vital evidence. He expressed concern about tampering.​

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Later in the day, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said he was asking the public to be patient and give his office the opportunity to conduct an investigation. He was critical of comments made by lawyers for the family and the witnesses.​

[Why the hell should your office be investigating this? It will just another one of your infamous exercises in self-exoneration. Since the CHP was involved, they shouldn't be investigating either. This needs to be turned over the U.S. Department of Justice immediately along with custody of all evidence.]

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KERO television, channel 23, posted both an apparent video of the beating and an audio tape of a 911 call.​

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The video was said to be from a surveillance camera and is not a closeup view of what happened. However, it shows someone being repeatedly beaten with a stick while more and more law enforcement vehicles arrive.​

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The 911 operator asks her supervisor to handle the call and Quair continues, saying she is:​

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“On the corner of Flower and Palm right now and you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight sheriffs. The guy was laying on the floor and eight sheriffs ran up and started beating him up with sticks. The man is dead laying right here, right now.”​

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Melissa Quair’s boyfriend also had taken video of the incident and at 3 a.m. two sheriff’s detectives arrived at her home to confiscate the boyfriend’s phone.​

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“We had stopped by Taco Bell to get something to eat, and we were eating and at about 3 a.m. two detectives showed up, barged in without my permission and demanded to see my boyfriend for his phone,” Melissa said.​

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[So we have not only a fatal beatdown, but also a warrantless home invasion on the part of the cops.]

In that video, Melissa said Friday, it is very clear that the deputies were beating Silva. At one point, she recalled, the deputies had Silva hogtied and they lifted him and dropped him twice and asked if he was still with them.​

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She said she and her boyfriend were essentially kept captive inside their own home until they released their phones.​