The Dallas Police Department is investigating an incident in which four officers laughed at a disabled veteran who was reportedly forced to urinate himself after being denied access to a restroom in a Deep Ellum pizzeria, a police spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
The man, Dynell Lane, said he was refused by two off-duty officers working as security despite providing documentation showing he had a disability.
An initial investigation cleared the two off-duty officers and two others who were on duty. But after body camera footage was shown at a recent Community Police Oversight Board meeting, police spokesperson Kristin Lowman said the incident was under review.
"The Department is looking into the complaint and the Internal Affairs Division will conduct an administrative investigation," she said.
DPD previously told the Dallas Morning News that while the department was looking into the complaint, that did not mean the investigation was reopened.
The footage shows four officers standing inside the restaurant laughing as they recount the story.
“You guys made a guy pee himself?” a laughing on-duty officer asked one of the guards. The two off-duty officers can also be seen laughing and smiling after learning Lane called 911 to report them.
“He got mad you guys wouldn’t let him use the restroom," an on-duty officer says. "Then he calls back and said it’s OK he doesn’t need to pee anymore." The body camera footage then abruptly cuts off.
Lane told the board at an Aug. 8 meeting he became disabled after deployments in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq. He said his injuries led to him being medically evacuated from combat and placed into a wounded warrior regiment for a year and a half to undergo surgery on his lower body.
"My life has changed — drastically changed — and it has been a constant fight having to explain myself about my disability just to get assistance from public servants and private businesses while I'm out and about," he said.
Under what's known as Ally's Law, named after a 14-year-old girl with Crohn’s disease who was refused bathroom access in public, retail establishments must allow people with certain medical conditions to access an employee bathroom if there's no publicly available restroom.
Lane said he had PDF documentation on his phone, but the off-duty officers refused him anyway.
A marketing agency for Milkshake concepts, which owns Serious Pizza, told the Dallas Morning News it was aware of the incident but did not answer specific questions from the outlet.
“To provide a safe environment for all of our guests and team members, we hire off-duty Dallas Police Department officers,” the company said. “We are reviewing our safety procedures to avoid similar incidents while continuing to ensure the safety and comfort of our team members and guests, as that is our top priority.”
Board members condemned the behavior shown on the video, with one member calling it "appalling." Board member Deatra Wadsworth read aloud the text of Ally's law, which her colleague David Kitner said was clear.
"You're sitting here telling us you're going to look into it," Kitner told the department at the meeting. "Ms. Wadsworth took a minute and found it, but yet you told us there was no violation. This just seems to be a total breakdown."
