Peabody youth center won’t share video of police incident
Staff writer
The board of the Hub youth center in Peabody has rejected a request from the Marion County Record to view security footage about a police encounter.
The footage is of a Feb. 8 incident in which officer Eric Watts radioed for backup after adolescents outside the Hub approached and allegedly threatened him.
The city and Hub dispute how many adolescents confronted Watts.
Hub president Joe Hutchison claimed at a city council meeting last week that the Hub’s footage showed only a handful of kids.
On Feb. 28, Peabody denied a KORA request made by the Record to view Watts’ bodycam footage of the incident. The request was denied, police said, because the footage is part of an ongoing criminal investigation.