A lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday alleges two Minneapolis police officers violated the constitutional rights of a man who was filming them with his cell phone by shoving him to the ground and then wrongfully jailing him to hide their conduct.

Body-camera video from the April 22, 2022 incident shows the officers on a rainy street in south Minneapolis, asking for Said Abdullahi to move his car. Abdullahi tells them a man who he’d asked for help jumping his stalled vehicle had assaulted him. “This guy is out of control,” Abdullahi said, as the second officer, identified as Sergio Villegas in the civil complaint, approaches from behind and forcefully pushes him, sending him toppling backwards to the street.

“Hey!” shouts Abdullahi, as the other officer grabs his wrist. “Stop assaulting me!”

According to Abdullahi’s attorney Jeff Storms, Villegas described the incident in a report as him pushing “Abdullahi to the sidewalk,” and then: “Abdullahi lost his footing and fell down, dropping his phone.”

The video shows Villegas pushing Abdullahi to the ground.

The officers cited Abdullahi for misdemeanor disorderly conduct and brought him to the jail in what the lawsuit says was “an effort to cover up their unlawful conduct.” After spending three nights in jail, the charges were dropped.

Abdullahi is suing Villegas, Barlow and the city of Minneapolis, alleging the officers used their official capacity to deprive him of his First and Fourth Amendment rights. The lawsuit filed in Minnesota U.S. District Court describes the officers’ conduct as a “widespread custom” of Minneapolis police to retaliate against people who film them, citing charges of a pattern of free-speech violations brought by the Justice Department against Minneapolis this summer.

“The most serious force used on Mr. Abdullahi, akin to a blindside block, has caused serious harm and even death in other instances,” said Storms in a statement Tuesday. “It is sheer luck that the consequences of this unlawful conduct were not worse. If the MPD is going to make genuine efforts to rebuild its trust with communities of color, this conduct cannot be tolerated and the consequences must be meaningful.”

Minneapolis spokesman Casper Hill said the city has not been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment.

According to the lawsuit:

On that April day, Abdullahi’s car stalled near 19th Ave. S. and Franklin Frontage Road, in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

Abdullahi asked a man in his parked car for a jump start, and the man responded with hostility, threatening him with a “knife and a baseball bat” and calling 911. Abdullahi showed the man he had mace “to defend himself.”

Villegas and Barlow arrived on scene and Barlow talked to the still-agitated 911 caller in his car. Barlow told the man “there’s obviously no threat here,” and that Abdullahi was “just an idiot.”

Abdullahi eventually asked to speak with the officers’ supervisor, and they mocked him, calling him “[expletive] stupid.” Abdullahi recorded the conversation because he felt he was being “treated unfairly.”

Barlow pushed Abdullahi twice. When Abdullahi said he wanted to press charges for assault, Villegas approached and “violently pushed Abdullahi to the pavement” with “punitive intent.”