Spectrum News spoke with the attorney of police officer Luke Deer on Friday.

Deer is charged with felony assault for his actions the night of March 16 — actions police Chief Eric Hawkins said were a clear case of police brutality, in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News.

The body camera footage of the incident has been watched, re-watched, analyzed, posted, shared, tweeted, and re-tweeted. Most in the community, including officials, agree the video says a lot. But Deer's Defense Attorney Michael McDermott says there is also a lot the footage doesn’t say.

"You’re jumping to a conclusion [without] all the facts,” McDermott said.

McDermott says the case comes down to intent.

“I think at the end of the day his intent was to effectuate an arrest, not cause someone physical harm," McDermott said.

McDermott says Deer and other officers had reason to be hyper-vigilant when they arrived at the First Street home, which they had beeen called to dozens of times of before according to police.

“It is well known people that frequent that house [hold] criminal records, violent criminal records," McDermott said.

Still, the question community members want answered, and jurors may eventually consider, is why did Deer have to use such overt physical force when Armando Sanchez was standing in the street with his hands up.

"[Deer] runs in the direction of Mr. Sanchez, who [he] thinks is posing a threat to the other officers on scene. If you look at the videos you can see that as soon as his hands are secure, the use of force ends. But until his hands are secured, there is always [the] potential of a weapon being used,” McDermott said.

And as the city has come down hard on Deer, McDermott says some blame rests on city hall.

“I think it’s reprehensible that [the] city has allowed this conduct at this house to go on for so long, [terrorizing] this neighborhood for so long, putting police officers in jeopardy time and time again to respond to this,” McDermott said.

For now, Deer remains on unpaid administrative leave.

“He’s an exemplary officer who is distraught over this entire situation,” McDermott said.