Kinston Police Department issues report on use of force incident occurring July 13, 2025
According to a recent press release from the City of Kinston, a Kinston police officer’s use of force during the July 13 arrest of Cameron Williams was deemed justified after internal and external reviews.
Why it matters: The incident, which partially circulated online, sparked community concerns over police conduct and prompted both internal and third-party evaluations.
Officer Beck encountered Williams during a breaking and entering investigation; Williams interfered, refused commands, and walked away.
After repeated verbal commands, Williams resisted arrest physically and made verbal threats, leading to a ground struggle.
Officer Beck used a trained arm-bar takedown and delivered three closed-fist strikes while attempting to gain control.
Williams appeared to have a medical episode during the struggle; EMS was called immediately and found no critical issues.
Internal review found the force used was within KPD policy and North Carolina law enforcement training standards.
An independent expert confirmed the force was appropriate, citing the chaotic environment, Williams’ aggression, and officer safety risks.
Report on Use of Force Incident Occurring July 13, 2025
Report Date August 7, 2025
This is a summary report of the findings from the use of force incident involving the arrest of 18 year old Cameron Williams. The incident occurred at the Richard Green Apartments. The investigation utilized data from the “viral” camera footage, as well as the body worn camera footage, the incident report and the use of force report. The investigation was conducted internally by the Kinston Chief of Police and the KPD Internal affairs Division and was also submitted for an external expert review.
Factual Summary
On Sunday, July 13, 2025, at approximately 7:40 p.m., Officer Beck was dispatched to the Richard Green Apartment’s Office (a public housing complex) in reference to a breaking and entering complaint where an unknown suspect entered the apartment building and stole $195 from the complainant’s wallet – the larceny had taken place in the past 15 minutes.
Officer Beck arrived on-scene but was unable to make contact with the complainant. Officer Beck observed a group of children playing in front of the apartment building – the children were between 5 to 10 years old. The children asked Officer Beck who he was looking for and attempted to assist him. As the children were talking with Officer Beck, an unknown young male wearing a ski mask, black coat and green hooded sweatshirt walked by and told the children, “Don’t tell them sh** – don’t help him,” and continued walking. The children immediately stopped talking to Officer Beck and appeared to be afraid.
As the subject, later identified as Cameron Williams (“Williams”), inserted himself in the investigation, Officer Beck felt it was important to identify him for investigatory reasons so he left the group of children and attempted to stop Williams. It was 79 degrees with 94% humidity and Williams was wearing a ski-mask that covered his face, while he was in the same vicinity of a breaking and entering and theft to a residence. The incident also took place on Kinston Housing Authority property and there are No Trespassing signs on most buildings in the complex.
Officer Beck walked behind Williams and asked him if he knew who he was supposed to be looking for (referring to the complainant) and told him to stop. Williams refused to acknowledge Officer Beck and continued to walk away from Officer Beck. Officer Beck called out for Williams to stop on (4) different occasions and called out for his attention another (6) times – each time Williams refused to stop.
As Williams left Richard Green Apartments property and walked onto Tiffany Street, Officer Beck caught up to him and attempted to get him to stop. Officer Beck grabbed Williams’ left arm and once again told him to stop. Williams asked Officer Beck, “Why is you touching me bro?” Officer Beck told him, “I’ve told you to stop several times.” Williams replied, “N-word, you did not.” Officer Beck then told him to turn around as he placed a handcuff on Williams’ left wrist. Williams then pulled away from Officer Beck and refused to allow Officer Beck to place handcuffs on his right wrist. Officer Beck once again told Williams to place his hands behind his back but he continued to try and get away from Officer Beck.
Williams argued with Officer Beck and told Officer Beck he was going to “Beat his a**.” Officer Beck told Williams to get on the ground and as Williams resisted Officer Beck, Officer Beck performed an arm-bar take down on Williams and physically took him to the ground. Williams told Officer Beck, “Ima goon-a shoot yo a**.” While on the ground, Officer Beck was positioned on top of the subject, attempting to place Williams’ hands in handcuffs, however, Williams refused to be handcuffed and attempted to get away from Officer Beck.
Officer Beck can be heard telling Williams to “Stop fighting” and in response Williams shouted to Officer Beck, “I’m not fighting.” While on the ground, it is apparent Officer Beck is struggling with placing handcuffs on Williams. Williams attempted to lift Officer Beck off of him and Officer Beck again told Williams to “Stop Fighting.” At this time, Officer Beck has a hold on Williams’ left wrist, which is in a handcuff and is attempting to get Williams to give him his other hand so he can be cuffed; however, Williams refused to comply. During the struggle on the ground, Williams was able to grab Officer Beck’s left arm, which caused Officer Beck to lose mobility of his arm.
In the “viral” video, Officer Beck can be heard telling Williams “Let go of me, let go of me” and can be seen striking Williams with his fist (3) times in the left shoulder or side area - and can be heard telling Williams to “Stop.” Williams then yells out, “He hitting me, he hitting me.” A subject from the crowd then walked up to Officer Beck and Officer Beck diverted his attention to the subject – as he told him to “Back-up,” all while continuing to attempt to take Williams into custody. The subject backed away and the Officer Beck continued to give commands to Williams, who continued to argue at Officer Beck.
Officer Taylor arrived on-scene and a different subject wearing a white shirt approached Officer Beck and began yelling at him. Officer Beck diverted his attention to the subject and told him to “Back up.” Officer Taylor attempted to assist Officer Beck with placing handcuffs on Williams. As Williams continued to refuse to place his right hand behind his back, the officers were able to roll Williams on stomach and place his left hand behind his back. Officer Thompson arrived on-scene and began crowd control. As Officer Beck and Officer Taylor attempted to place handcuffs on Williams, his body began to shake.
It is unknown if Williams was having a medical emergency or not. The officers rolled Williams on his side and stabilized his body, including his head. Within seconds of Williams shaking, Captain Best arrived on-scene can be heard requesting EMS for assistance. After an estimated one minute and twenty seconds, Williams stopped shaking and the officers notate it in the video. Officers rolled Williams over to make sure he was breathing and lifted up his shirt to observe that his stomach was moving and he was breathing. At that point, Williams had been handcuffed in the front of his body. The officers continued to stabilize Williams and attempted to get his attention but he didn’t react to their questions.
Within several minutes, first responders from the Kinston Department of Fire & Rescue arrived on-scene and assessed Williams. Williams responded to the fire-fighters and began to talk with them, telling the fire-fighters and officers to get him up off the ground. When Williams was assisted up off the ground, he immediately began yelling and cursing at the officers. Williams yelled at Officer Beck, “Beck you’re a** is dead, you’re a** is grass.” During this time, EMS arrived on-scene and officers placed Williams on an EMS gurney so he could be checked out by EMS.
EMS checked out Williams and determined there were no immediate medical issues. Prior to being released by EMS, Williams advised EMS that he didn’t wish to seek further medical attention at the hospital. Being of adult age, this was Williams’ decision to make.
While still on the scene, Officers allowed Williams’ girlfriend to speak with him prior to him being transported to the police station. During their conversation, Williams explained to his girlfriend that he saw the officer (Beck) speaking to the young children and heard the officer tell the children who he was looking for. Williams also told his girlfriend that he told the children not to talk to the police and kept walking but that Officer Beck followed him and tried to arrest him.
Officers then transported Williams to the police station for booking procedures. At the station, Cameron Williams refused to cooperate with officers and screamed and cursed at officers throughout the processing procedure. Williams once again threatened on several occasions to kill Officer Beck. It is also important to note, that on several occasions throughout the incident, to include when Officer Beck attempted to arrest Williams at the scene as well as while Williams was at the station, Williams shouted out, “gang verbiage” in an attempt to further threaten the officers.
Internal Incident Review
Punches, in themselves, do not automatically equate to excessive force or force that is against policy and procedure. The State of North Carolina allows these types of strikes and it is taught in Basic Law Enforcement Training. In this situation, which was close combat and, on the ground, it was better for the officer to strike the person for stunning purposes than to utilize OC spray, a baton or an ECW (taser).
After looking over the use of force report, to include all body-worn camera footage, social media video footage, interviews, the incident report and photographs, it has been determined the officers utilized the least amount of force necessary to successfully take the subject into custody; therefore, this use of force is within KPD policy and procedure.
External Incident Review
In response to concerns from the community, an independent expert was retained to review the use of force incident. On August 5, 2025, the expert provided a copy of his review and met with the City Council to discuss his report. Based on the review, the expert offered the following opinions:
Based on the materials I have reviewed, and my education, training, knowledge, and experience in law enforcement, particularly police practices, standards and training, and the use of force in law enforcement, I conclude with a reasonable degree of professional certainty: The amount and method of force used against Cameron Williams by Corporal A. Beck on July 13, 2025, were reasonable under the circumstances and not otherwise in violation of standard law enforcement practice or established training standards, nor Kinston PD policy. Beck's actions were consistent with what a reasonably well-trained law enforcement officer would have done under similar circumstances. This overarching opinion in this matter is based on the following, from the materials reviewed to date:
Law enforcement officers are trained to respond to the behavior displayed by an offender at the moment the officer decides to use force - without regard to any possible underlying intent. In other words, officers are trained to respond to what is occurring, not an offender's intent or lack of intent. Further, use of force situations normally do not occur in a manner that can be accurately predicted and responded to with a pre-planned, choreographed, and neatly sequenced response. Williams' resistive behavior caused this legitimate law enforcement encounter to escalate, ultimately leading to the use of force, including punches, to bring him under control and complete the arrest.
While it is impossible to know what Williams was thinking during this incident, the behavior that Williams displayed - as described in Beck's statement and as seen on the BWC videos - would lead reasonably well-trained officers to conclude that Williams displayed behavior of a resistive and physically assaultive nature that would indicate this threat was ongoing. Williams' behavior, while being given lawful commands from a uniformed police officer on housing authority property, was not consistent with that of a compliant, nonthreatening person. In fact, his behavior was most certainly consistent of a clear indication of his intent to continue to resist arrest, to include the ongoing verbal threats to physically harm CPL Beck. At that moment, it was reasonable for the officers to believe that Williams posed an ongoing assaultive threat to them unless the threat was stopped.
The situation became rapidly chaotic with the arrival of numerous individuals yelling very loudly, moving around uncontrolled, and getting very close to the physical struggle between the officers and Williams, which could clearly be seen on the BWC footage. I conclude that this was an uncontrolled and extremely unsafe environment with many unknown risk factors that could have put everyone's safety at high risk, particularly with the struggle going to the ground. Control and safety needed to be initiated quickly and decisively. I conclude that the actions of all officers on the scene were quick, reasonable, and ultimately effective allowing for control to be established, the arrest to be completed, and EMS to be brought in.
A reason to use physical strikes - or any type of stunning technique - is to create a window of opportunity by distracting an offender to allow officers to establish control and complete the arrest. These techniques are taught in the Basic Law Enforcement Training curriculum during Subject Control and Arrest Techniques. Closed-fist strikes to the torso are trained as non-deadly control tactics and are not considered a higher level of force than any other "personal weapons" strike [" personal weapons" strikes are stunning/ distraction techniques applied with bodily force such as closed fist strikes, open hand strikes, and strikes with other parts of the body such as the forearm, elbow, knee, shin, feet, or head].
"Quick Take" techniques [such as an" arm bar"] are taught specifically in BLET during the Subject Control & Arrest Techniques block of instruction. These techniques are presented, trained, practiced, and eventually tested as part of successful completion of the block of instruction and the BLET course itself. To be effective, any "Quick Take" technique depends on speed and surprise, lest the offender realize what is taking place and escalates resistance to stop the technique. These techniques typically use joint manipulation, momentum, and balance disruption, and most commonly involve bringing an offender to the ground from either a standing or seated position.
Reasons to bring a resisting offender to the ground with a "Quick Take" technique such as an "arm bar" are stabilization and control. The ground may act as "counter-pressure" and will keep an offender from moving as freely as from a standing position, thus allowing the officer to establish control more quickly. To do this, the officer must have a way to disrupt the offender's balance either by body control or by stunning/ distraction techniques. Some common balance disruptions include a tackle, trip, hook, or sweep of the legs, use of an arm bar, controlling the hips/ torso, and control of the head/ neck and/ or hair.
It was reasonable for Beck at the point of the punches to perceive that Williams, by continuing to struggle and threaten Beck even after he was seized, did pose an ongoing threat of physical violence to the officers. This behavior certainly indicates that Williams was not under control at the time he was struck. In my opinion, the use of force was reasonable and appropriate considering Williams' continued resistance to the efforts to get him under control. In addition, it would be unreasonable and dangerous at this point for the officers to assume that Williams' behavior could be stopped by continuing with verbal instructions or limb-manipulation physical control techniques only, given Williams' demonstrated intent to continue to resist and his lack of response to repeated verbal commands.
To control a resistive person, an officer must completely overwhelm that person's resistance as quickly as possible. That may mean having to use multiple force options and officers until the resistance has stopped, and the person has been controlled. For this very reason, multiple officers simultaneously attempting to control a resistive person is recommended, reasonable, and appropriate.
During the process of trying to control a physically struggling adult, precise and perfect control and application can almost certainly not be achieved. The reality and the dynamics of this kind of restraint are quite different from a controlled training session that takes place on a mat, in a spacious training room, and under the direction and control of specialized instructors. While this is done to learn technique application, it does not accurately mimic the true stress of having to physically maneuver a resistive adult into a compliant position. I conclude that Beck's use of force was consistent with the training at the state level, reasonable, and not in violation of standard law enforcement training tactics or established training standards, nor Kinston PD policy.
Williams was provided with immediate and appropriate medical attention even before the handcuffing had been completed with EMS being immediately called and arrived quickly due to a suspected seizure. Williams refused treatment and was transported to KPD for processing.
Williams continued to struggle physically even while at the PD for processing and continued his physical resistance and verbal threats to the point that leg restraints had to be applied by D.
Richardson who also had to continue to restrain Williams to keep him from harming himself and others.
The description of Williams' behavior leads me to conclude that the charges of Resist, Delay, and Obstruct along with Communicating Threats were appropriate. N.C. General Statute§ 14-223 Resisting officers which states, if any person shall willfully and unlawfully resist, delay or obstruct a public officer in discharging or attempting to discharge a duty of his office, he shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. (1889, c. 51, s. 1; Rev., s. 3700; C.S., s. 4378; 1969, c. 1224, s.1; 1993, c. 539, s. 136; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).).
Conclusion
While the KPD would prefer to never have to use force, there are times and circumstances when the use of reasonable force is necessary. During those times, the KPD training and BLET training is to always use the minimal amount of force necessary, keeping in mind public and officer safety.
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