Rapper Polo G was arrested early Saturday morning after an altercation with police during a traffic stop.
The 22-year-old, whose real name is Taurus Bartlett, was charged with battery against a police officer, threatening a public servant, resisting an officer with violence, resisting an officer without violence and criminal mischief.
He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and released after making bond.
According to the arrest report, Bartlett was one of several males in a black Cadillac pulled over by police for having tinted windows. The driver allegedly refused to lower his window and the officer claimed a passenger said: “This vehicle is bullet proof. That’s why we are not lowering the windows.”
Asked if there were guns in the car, none of the occupants responded but looked nervously at each other, according to the report. (Police said two firearms were later found.)
Officers ordered the men out of the vehicle but Bartlett, they allege, refused and became “increasingly verbally aggressive.” He was pulled from the vehicle and taken to the ground, where he is accused of resisting arrest.
Police claim Bartlett punched and elbowed Officer Brandon Carrero multiple times and also threatened to “beat the s**t out of you and knock your a** out.” During transport to a police station, the rap star allegedly kicked the inside of the cruiser.
Several other men in the car face charges including driving with a suspended license, resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct.
Bartlett took to Twitter to accuse authorities of “playin’ foul” and claimed one of the officers “told us they was on us since we Off our Jet.”
His mother Stacia Mac, who is the rapper’s manager, tweeted: “None of these charges would be possible if the POLICE did not make contact with my son Polo G!!! He was NOT the driver. He was a PASSENGER in a professionally licensed vehicle with security. He was moving smart and correctly. What more could he have done.”
Bartlett’s lawyer Bradford Cohen claims there are “independent witnesses” contradicting the police department’s version of events.
Miami Police said the incident was captured on officers’ body cameras. In a release, it said: “The department has initiated a review of this incident, which will include an examination of all camera footage to insure adherence to departmental policy and law.
“The department has also launched an investigation on several threats received against our personnel and facilities by unknown individuals in response to the arrest of Mr. Bartlett.”
Among the rappers arrested in Miami in the past two years are Lil Wayne, Da Baby, Trick Daddy and Kodak Black.