Police pepper spray Kinston Walmart crowds, former officer arrested

KINSTON, N.C. - People waiting in line at the Kinston Walmart quickly found themselves covering their face after police shot pepper-spray into the air.

It happened around 11:00 p.m. Thursday.

A former Kinston police officer, 58-year-old Gordon Jackson, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Nine on Your Side talked with Jackson who says it was police overreacting.  His wrist is still red from where police handcuffed him.

Police arrested Jackson shortly after using pepper-spray to control a crowd, they say, was getting out of hand.  Jackson said people were just jockeying for position in line.

"They weren't running.  They were not creating a problem.  They were just trying to get close to the displays," said Jackson, "He was raining [pepper spray] over the whole crowd so that it would rain down on their heads.  Some got on my granddaughter.  When I was doing that kind of work, we would have never done that, not in a store like that," said Jackson.

"I couldn't breath and everything got dizzy and I was shaking," said Caitlin Jackson, Gordon’s granddaughter.

Though Jackson was charged with disorderly conduct, cell phone video shot shortly after the crowd was pepper-sprayed shows Jackson being anything but disorderly.

"I've never been in any trouble, I was just out there to see what was going on and all I said to him was you shouldn't have used that pepper spray on those kids and all," said Jackson, "He came over and faced me.  I didn't raise my voice, I didn't raise my hand, I didn't say anything and he said, 'I want you to leave. I turn to leave and I took maybe one step and three officers jumped me from behind and slammed me on one of the pallets with the merchandise on it.  I said, 'what are you doing' and he said, 'well you're not moving fast enough."

Jackson, a retired soldier who has trouble hearing, says he didn't move because he was asking the officer to repeat himself.  That's when he was arrested and taken from the store and banned from the property.

"Times are hard and people were just out there trying to buy something, and that's all they were doing, we’re not animals," said Jackson.

**No one involved in the incident on the police side would comment on camera.  We went by the  Kinston Department of Public Safety, but it was locked and closed.

We also called the official police spokesperson and left extended messages on the incident.

No one at the Walmart store would talk with us either, sending us to corporate, which did not return requests for policy information before deadline.

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KINSTON, N.C. (WNCT) - Kinston Police tell us off-duty officers used pepper spray to make an arrest after a fight broke out at a Kinston Wal-Mart.

We spoke with officials earlier who tell us Wal-Mart hired off duty officers to monitor the Black Friday crowds.

A disturbance broke out and pepper spray was used to make an arrest.

Nine On Your Side talked with 58-year-old Gordon Jackson, the man arrested during the incident.

Jackson, a former Kinston police officer, said a fight never broke out and police overreacted to people just jockeying for position in line.

 “He was raining it over the whole crowd so that it will rain down on their heads.  Some of it got on my granddaughter in her face and eyes and she had to go to the emergency room because she's asthmatic,” said Jackson.

Jackson said he simply told police they shouldn't have pepper sprayed the crowd.

Nine On Your Side will continue to follow this story and have more tonight.