INDIANAPOLIS — Vauhxx Booker is facing a charge of battery against an IMPD officer after an incident at an Indianapolis bar Sunday morning.
Booker is the same man who said he was assaulted and pinned to a tree at Lake Monroe last summer.
In the Indianapolis case, police said they were called to Downtown Olly's around 6:34 a.m. on Sept. 5.
When officers arrived, they said Booker approached them and was yelling that the staff members were "intoxicated, rude, yelling and screaming racist comments to him."
IMPD instructed Booker to contact management about his issues with the staff and police told the staff to have Booker leave the business if they could not come to an agreement.
The officer said Booker then became upset with police for not "locking anyone up" and demanded to speak to the officer's supervisor. Booker then told the officer he was going to record them with his cellphone.
When officers said they tried to explain to Booker that the circumstances wouldn't call for them to lock up anyone, Booker got "agitated and angry" and then yelled at an officer about "killing blacks in Indianapolis," according to court documents.
The police supervisor instructed the officers to take a report on the incident. As part of that, police asked for Booker's ID and he handed his license to them. While police were waiting on a case number for their report, they claim Booker came into the road and began yelling at them to return his license. Police said they asked him multiple times to return to the sidewalk and Booker did not.
In court documents, police then said Booker put his chest into an officer, knocking him back. That officer caught themselves, pushed Booker back and put him in handcuffs.
All three officers there at the time were wearing body cameras.
The battery against a public safety official charge is a felony.
Booker is also accused of battery resulting in moderate bodily injury and criminal trespass for the July 4, 2020 incident near Lake Monroe.
Sean Purdy and Jerry Cox II were previously charged with the alleged assault on Booker.
Booker said someone threatened to "get a noose" during the incident. The defendants claimed Booker and his friends were trespassing when they gathered at the southern Indiana lake.
Booker, a civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, said he called 911 after the assault, which he said left him with a mild concussion and bald spots on his scalp, along with a scratch on his cheek and an abrasion on his knee.
The attorneys for Purdy and his girlfriend said Booker was the instigator and threatened to use his position in the community to ruin their clients. The attorneys said Booker got into the face of Purdy's girlfriend and when Purdy intervened, Booker hit him three times.
What other people are reading:
- 2 victims who died on 9/11 identified nearly 20 years later
- 'You literally saved my life' | Plainfield K-9 gets treats from veteran he helped through mental health crisis
- Superintendent releases statement after student stabbed at North Central High School
- Police identify teenagers killed in Boone County crash after police chase
- Russ Trotter survived a house fire as a kid. Now, he saves people from them as an Indianapolis firefighter