California man questions Arizona trooper's actions in traffic stop

Kenneth Walton and his 7-year-old daughter were on their way to the Grand Canyon on Thursday night when they were pulled over by a trooper after the license plate of their rental car mistakenly was reported stolen.

That much is not in dispute.

What is disputed are the details of the traffic stop, driven largely by a social-media post by Walton claiming he was threatened by the state trooper. That lengthy Facebook account of what happened that night was gaining attention on social media Sunday

"Tonight, I was arrested at gunpoint by an Arizona highway patrol officer who threatened to shoot me in the back (twice) in front of my 7-year-old daughter," wrote Walton, who is from San Francisco. "For a moment, I was certain he was going to kill me for no reason. I'm alive, and I need to share the story."

Walton did not return messages by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com seeking additional comment Sunday.

Walton’s Facebook post has garnered significant attention since it was first published on Saturday.

Montini: Innocent DPS trooper found guilty in court...of social media

DPS: Trooper only doing his job

Capt. Damon Cecil of the Arizona Department of Public Safety is calling Walton's story "exaggerated and inflammatory," stating the trooper was simply doing his job and keeping Walton and his daughter safe.

"This was a dangerous situation that could have been avoided altogether if the plate had been switched by the rental company." Cecil said. "We understand Mr. Walton is angry, but to lash out at a trooper who was only doing his job and doing it in a way that he, Mr Walton and his daughter were safest, is inexcusable and wrong."

According to DPS, shortly before 7:45 p.m., a trooper patrolling near Williams along Interstate 40 ran a registration check on Walton's car. The check showed the car had been reported stolen. The trooper, who was not identified by DPS, then requested backup and continued to follow Walton's car until he exited the freeway, the agency said in a statement issued about the incident.

The trooper then initiated a high-risk traffic stop, in which a trooper's gun is drawn and the occupants are ordered out of the vehicle when a serous or dangerous condition may exist, DPS said.

"Walton was not responding to the officer's commands while seated in his vehicle so the trooper moved up the passenger-side window and got the occupant's attention by tapping on the window with his hand," DPS said in the statement.

However, Walton, in his post, claims the trooper rapped on his window with his gun — inches away from his daughter's face who sat in the backseat.

"My daughter ... jumped with fear as the officer yelled at me to roll down the front passenger window, his service weapon pointed directly at me," Walton wrote. "I tried to remain calm, keeping my hands visible as I slowly fumbled for the window controls in an unfamiliar car."

Walton said the trooper continued to shout orders. His daughter attempted to get out of her booster seat to reach forward and roll down the window, when the trooper pointed his gun back on her and ordered her not to move, he said.

DPS said the girl was lying down and that the trooper realized a child was in the car only when the girl sat up into view. At that time, he ordered Walton out of the car to be detained while he continued his investigation, DPS said.

"When the investigation concluded that the rental company had not replaced the vehicle plates when the front plate was reported stolen, Mr. Walton and his daughter were released from the scene," DPS said. "(Walton) was detained for a short time before being released with no charges."

DPS  trooper 'screamed at me'

According to Walton, though, many details were left out in the DPS account of the exchange. Walton wrote that the trooper continued to be hostile toward him, writing "he screamed at me to face away from him, as if I were doing something wrong. Then as I had my hands in the air, he yelled at the top of his lungs ... 'Get your hands away from your waist or I'll blow two holes through your back right now!'  '"

"My hands were high in the air as he said this, and I was not in any way reaching for my waist. I was utterly terrified," Walton wrote.

DPS officials defended the officer's actions as appropriate given the situation.

"DPS understands and sympathizes with the concerns the family has regarding this situation,” Capt. Ezekiel Zesiger, Flagstaff district commander, said in a statement. “Anytime a police contact is made for a possibly stolen vehicle our troopers are trained to take all necessary precautions. In this instance, the vehicle's license plate was reported as stolen. Troopers must adhere to their training in regards to conducting a high-risk traffic stop in these types of situations. Training and protocols are in place for the safety of the Trooper as well as the safety of citizens. Fortunately, the subject in this case was compliant with the trooper and the situation ended peacefully with no one being harmed.”

Reaction to Walton's Facebook post was extensive Sunday. His post received more than 15,000 reactions on Facebook, including “likes,'' and had been shared nearly 33,000 times by late Sunday afternoon.

There also were nearly 4,200 ​comments on Walton’s post, many expressing shock or outrage at the incident and offering sympathy. Sprinkled throughout are those who question Walton’s version of events, often linking to the official DPS statement or blog posts accusing Walton of everything from simple lying to manufacturing outrage in preparation for the filing of a civil-rights lawsuit.

The end of Walton's post offers another rationale, mentioning the activist movement Black Lives Matter and recent national controversies about police interactions.

"We live in a society where anywhere and everyone can have a gun at any time, and police are responding with fear in dangerous ways," he wrote. "I got lucky tonight. ... Many others — because of the color of their skin or the way they look or because of simple bad luck — did not meet the same fate."

Reporter Graig Graziosi contributed to this report.