LOWELL, Mich. (WOOD) — The Lowell Police Department said it decided an officer did not do anything wrong in how he removed two opossums from the middle of the road earlier this week.
Allegations that the officer kicked an opossum prompted a firestorm on social media. The police department in Lowell, Massachusetts, had to post asking people to stop mistakenly tagging it in reference to the West Michigan situation. After several messages from viewers, News 8 reached out to get the officer’s body camera video.
Around midnight Wednesday, an officer checked out a vehicle that was stopped in the middle of a lane on Alden Nash Avenue SE. In the video, the driver can be heard saying he was concerned about two opossums in the road that were not moving.
It’s unclear whether the animals were dead, injured or refusing to move. The video shows the officer moved them out of the road, one with his foot and the other by gingerly grabbing its tail.
The driver who had stopped filed a complaint against the officer. The Lowell Police Department said it investigated that complaint and found no wrongdoing. It submitted that report to the county prosecutor for an independent review.
Lowell police also said there had been complaints that the driver was sworn at. The video shows that’s not the case, though the officer did use an expletive while speaking to a sheriff’s deputy after the driver left. The department said the officer was reprimanded for that language.
“The Lowell Police Department takes all community complaints seriously and investigates them to ensure we are providing fair and responsive service,” the department wrote in a statement.