Trump 2020 re-election campaign manager, stands for the national anthem as U.S. President Donald Trump rallies with supporters during a Make America Great Again rally in Southaven, Mississippi, U.S., October 2, 2018.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
A dramatic police bodycam video released Monday shows Florida cops aggressively tackling former Trump presidential campaign chief Brad Parscale after a standoff outside his home, where his wife told officers that Parscale has hit her in the past, and was suicidal and armed.
“Get on the ground, get on the ground man,” an officer barked at Parscale as they took him down in front of his Fort Lauderdale home on Sunday afternoon, the video shows.
“I didn’t do anything,” an upset Brad Parscale repeatedly said on the video, which was posted on the Fort Lauderale Police Department’s YouTube page. (Warning: the video shows disturbing content.)
Parscale had emerged from the house, clad just in shorts and appearing to carry a can of beer, after initially refusing to come out.
After putting the can on the side of a truck, he told one officer, referring to his wife, “She started saying all this s—,” after being asked what had happened.
That is when other officers rushed Parscale, tackled him and handcuffed him behind his back as he lay facedown on the ground.
Police also seized 10 firearms, including several rifles, after officers took Parscale into custody, according to a police report obtained by NBC News.
The report reveals that Candice Parscale called police that afternoon after Brad Parscale, following “a verbal altercation,” loaded a round of ammunition in a gun that he was holding “in front of her.”
“He came out of his office, cocked a gun,” Candice says on the police video.
“He’s acting crazy … going irate.”
After Brad Parscale loaded the round, Candice Parscale “immediately fled residence and stated she heard a loud bang shortly after,” the report said.
Candice Parscale said she and a real estate agent who was with her “realized that Bradley did not shoot himself when they heard Bradley ranting and pacing around the residence and the dog barking” frantically, the report said.
“However, they were concerned that Bradley might still try to shoot himself.”
Candice Parscale told police that her 44-year-old husband, who in July was deposed from his role of overseeing President Donald Trump‘s campaign and replaced by Bill Stepien, has been “depressed and suicidal recently.”
Fort Lauderdale police body cam footage at the home of President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale.
Source: Fort Lauderdale Police Department
Candice Parscale said “this has led him to consume alcohol a lot more frequently and make suicidal statements,” according to an officer who spoke with her.
Brad Parscale in recent months has served Trump’s campaign as a senior advisor for digital and data.
When police showed up at the Parscale home Sunday after Candice Parscale called them to say that he was armed and threatening to harm himself, an officer called Brad Parscale several times and tried to get him to leave the house, the report said.
“However, he declined and remained inside the residence,” the officer wrote. “Bradley`s speech was slurred as though he was under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and he seemed to be crying.”
The police report said that during negotiations at the house, Brad Parscale “appeared aggressive as he consistantly [sic] spoke in a yelling and highly agitated tone and would not meet with officers away from his residence.”
At one point during the standoff, Parscale was seen by police sitting at the front door of his residence, drinking a beer and “talking to himself.”
But he was eventually persuaded to leave the residence after crisis negotiators and a SWAT team were called to the scene.
Police then took him to a hospital under the Baker Act, a mental health law that allows for involuntary admittance to a health-care facility.
The police report says that an officer noticed bruises on Candice Parscale at the scene.
An officer wrote on the report that “while speaking with Candice Parscale I noticed several large sized contusions on both of her arms, her cheek and forehead.”
“When I asked how she received the bruising, [Candice] Parscale stated Brad Parscale hits her,” the officer wrote.
“She advised [the bruises] occurred a few days ago, during a physical altercation with Bradley, which she did not report,” the police report said.
Brad Parscale is 6 feet, 8 inches tall.
Candice Parscale “stated that Bradley has been stressed out for the past two weeks and has made
suicidal comments throughout the week to shoot himself. Bradley did not make any suicidal comments today,” the officer wrote.
“However [Candice] was concerned for his safety. [Candice] advised Bradley drinks and he ‘suffers from ‘PTSD’ [post-traumautic stress disorder].”
In a statement issued before the police report was released, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said Brad Parscale “is a member of our family and we all love him.”
“We are ready to support him and his family in any way possible,” Murtaugh said. “The disgusting, personal attacks from Democrats and disgruntled RINOs [Republicans in Name Only] have gone too far, and they should be ashamed of themselves for what they’ve done to this man and his family.”
In response to a query from CNBC about the claim in the police report by Candice Parscale that Brad Parscale hits her, Murtaugh said: “Our thoughts are with Brad and his family as we wait for all the facts to emerge.”
