The man being arrested never raised his voice. The officer's rage was terrifying. " By 6:00 a.m., Chen's video hit 12,400 views. Local news scanner accounts noticed FBI presence at Deerfield Police overnight. At 7:30 a.m., a Chicago Tribune reporter called Deerfield Police for comment.
They said no comment. At 9:00 a.m., someone leaked to the reporter that the arrested man was an undercover FBI agent. Later, they found out it was Officer Harris who leaked it. At 9:47 a.m., the Tribune published breaking news. The headline read, "FBI agent allegedly assaulted by Deerfield police during traffic stop.
Federal investigation launched. " By 11:00 a.m., Chen's video had 127,000 views. It was trending number three in Chicago. By 200 p.m., national outlets picked it up. CNN, NBC, and ABC all covered it.
By midnight on October 18, the video had 1.8 million views across all platforms. The numbers were huge. Twitter had 1.2 million views, 94,000 retweets, and 312,000 likes. TikTok had 3.4 million views and 847,000 likes. Facebook had 890,000 views and 67,000 shares.
Instagram had 1.1 million views. YouTube news compilations got 2.3 million views total. Reddit put it on the front page with 487,000 upvotes combined. People were angry. Top comments said things like, "This is what they do when they think cameras don't matter.
Imagine what happens when there are no cameras. That got 94,000 likes. " Another said, "An FBI agent. They assaulted an FBI agent and still thought they'd get away with it. The arrogance is unreal.
" That got 67,000 likes. Every local news station led with the story. CNN did a segment. MSNBC covered it. NBC and ABC ran it on their evening news.
On October 19, the FBI released a statement. It said special agent Marcus Troy was doing an authorized undercover investigation into civil rights violations. The assault was under federal investigation. They would pursue all charges. The police union tried to defend Morrison on October 19 at 300 p.m. They said Morrison followed department protocol during a high-risk traffic stop.
The public got even more angry. On October 20, the city manager contradicted the union. They said the actions in the video don't reflect their values. All involved officers were on leave. On October 21, the union president went on local news.
He claimed Troy entrapped the officers. That same evening, the FBI released a transcript. It showed Troy asking, "Can I ask why you pulled me over? " And Morrison responding with threats. The union went quiet after that.
Morrison's wife tried to help. On October 22, she posted on Facebook, "My husband is a good man who was doing his job. This is a witch hunt. " The post got 340 shares with mostly negative comments. Morrison deleted all his social media by October 23, but it was too late.
Screenshots already showed his history of pro police posts and complaints about activists. Share this story if you think millions of people needed to see what really happens during traffic stops. The FBI spent three weeks investigating. October 18 to November 8, they assigned six agents full-time to the Deerfield case. They looked at 8 years of department records.
They talked to 47 witnesses. They watched 340 hours of body camera footage. They studied 89 traffic stops Morrison did over 3 years. They found a pattern. 73% of Morrison's stops were people from different backgrounds, but Deerfield was only 34% minority. All 11 excessive force complaints involved people from different backgrounds.
All were dismissed by Captain Reeves without real investigation. The city had settled three prior incidents with agreements to stay quiet. Total paid $187,000. The department had rules requiring body cameras to be on, but nobody enforced the rules. On November 12, 2024, federal charges were filed.
Officer Morrison faced four felony counts. Taking away rights under color of law carried up to 10 years. Assault of a federal officer carried up to 8 years. lying on a police report carried up to five years. Destroying evidence by turning off his camera carried up to 20 years. Officer Harris got two charges.
Helping with the assault carried up to 10 years. Failure to step in and stop it carried up to one year. Captain Reeves got two charges. Blocking justice by dismissing complaints carried up to 5 years. Conspiracy to violate civil rights carried up to 10 years.