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Judge approves release of Greensboro police footage after viral arrest video

Greensboro Police Chief John Thompson addressed the viral video of the arrest at a press conference on Nov. 6, 2025.
Courtesy Greensboro Police Department
Greensboro Police Chief John Thompson addressed the viral video of the arrest at a press conference on Nov. 6, 2025.

A Superior Court judge has approved a request to release the Greensboro Police Department’s recordings of an arrest.

A bystander video of the incident was widely shared.

Greensboro police requested the release of body-worn and vehicle footage of the arrest of Nathaniel Williams.

The bystander video shows officers holding the suspect down, attempting to handcuff him.

The department has come under scrutiny after a technique called suprascapular strikes was used to subdue Williams.

Chief John Thompson said in a press conference two weeks ago that he was unsure if force was warranted in the arrest.

Williams is facing numerous charges, including assault on a law enforcement officer, misdemeanor possession of marijuana, and communicating threats.

It could take up to three weeks before the police recordings are made public.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.