Bodycam shows University of Houston police identify man as sex assault suspect at time of arrest
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Newly released body camera footage from officers who arrested a suspect accused of sexually assaulting a woman at knifepoint offers new insight into what University of Houston Police Department officers knew the night he was first booked and later released prior to assault charges being filed.
Despite the university trying to withhold the video, the Texas Attorney General's Office sided with 13 Investigates, and the body camera footage we requested the night the suspect was first arrested had to be released.
The 13 Investigates team watched hours of body camera footage from a dozen officers. At one point or another, each of the officers mentioned they were aware that the man they arrested on Feb. 7 was the suspect in the alleged sexual assault that happened on campus six hours earlier.
Still, the suspect, Eric Brown, 40, was released the next day with no charges for the alleged sexual assault of the then-21-year-old UH student. Court documents say the victim was sexually assaulted at knifepoint in a UH parking garage while she was getting ready for a sorority event.
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Brown was charged with sexual assault days later, but he wasn't located and in custody again until 10 days after his first arrest.
13 Investigates continues to look into where the breakdown happened that allowed the suspect to initially walk free.
Through body camera footage, it's clear UH police officers immediately viewed the man they arrested on Feb. 7 as the sexual assault suspect.
"Yup, that's him. That's him," one officer said after the arrest. "We got him."
Another officer told first responders with the fire department that they captured "an aggravated sexual assault suspect."
According to the officers in the video, they worked off a description given by the victim and surveillance video that showed Brown leaving the parking garage to identify him.
"As soon as I seen them shorts, I was like, 'That's him,'" one officer said after the arrest. "I pulled up on him. Blocked him. He was walking this way. I was like, 'Don't move here,' and just kind of held him at taser point because he had a knife."
The first two officers who arrived said they made sure Brown didn't flee on a nearby train while they waited for backup before eventually tasing the suspect.
Before he was tased, Brown was yelling at the officers, saying things like "I am God."
"Pop me. Pop me. You gone have to," Brown said. "When you step through that line, you became my enemy."
The officers yelled commands for Brown to get on the ground, but he refused.
Minutes later, an officer tases Brown, restrains him, and searches him for weapons.
On the body camera footage, one officer says the knife they confiscated from Brown is "roughly" the same as the description of the knife the victim said was used during the assault.
One officer calls an assistant chief who is on his way to the scene and says, "It's going to be him. We got him."
Body camera video shows that around the time the suspect was arrested, which was six hours after the sexual assault, the victim had not yet positively identified the man they had in custody.
According to several officers in the video, the victim was still at the hospital when he was arrested. Officers at the scene said they would work to get the victim to ID the suspect in a photo lineup.
Brown didn't have any identification on him and sat in the back of a UHPD car for at least 30 minutes while officers identified him.
READ MORE: 13 Investigates: Newly released texts, emails reveal little about UH rape suspect's release
At some point that night, a UHPD officer called the district attorney's office's intake division to report the crime.
The officer is responsible for providing the DA's office with information related to the crime to determine if they're going to accept charges or not.
Brown was originally charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer. The body camera footage we reviewed shows an officer received a cut on his hand during the arrest.
The DA's office told 13 Investigates on Wednesday that the officer who called to present the resisting arrest and assault of a peace officer charges said Brown was a sex assault suspect.
The DA's office said they asked that officer if he wanted to present the sex assault charge, but that he said another officer was continuing to investigate that part of it, and he would present the case.
RELATED: DA launches investigation into why initial charges were declined after rape at UH parking garage
The DA's office claims they never heard from that officer and that someone from their office followed up with UHPD when he saw the case on the news.
At the time, UH said they didn't know why sex assault charges were not accepted.
Brown was released from jail hours after his arrest because the resisting and assault of a peace officer charges were dropped.
Brown was released on a Saturday, charged in the sex assault on the following Tuesday, and arrested a week later.
ABC13 sent the University of Houston questions, including asking if they believed they had several things that linked Brown to the crime, why he wasn't charged with sexual assault immediately.
"It is not uncommon in criminal cases for charges to be filed in stages, based on the evidence available at a given point in time. We will not comment on any specific evidence in this case," the university said in a statement.
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