Three law enforcement officers in Crawford County, Arkansas, have been placed on leave after a video shared on social media showed them beating and restraining a man in a parking lot. The governor said that the state police will investigate the incident.
In the video, a law enforcement officer brutally punches the man repeatedly and slams his head on the cement floor several times. Another officer is seen repeatedly kicking the man’s lower body, while a third officer is seen holding the man down.
Two of the officers were deputies from the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office and the third was an officer from the Mulberry Police Department, law enforcement confirmed.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson confirmed that state police would investigate the “arrest incident.”
“I spoke with Colonel Bill Bryant of the Arkansas State Police and the local arrest incident in Crawford County will be investigated based on the video evidence and the request of the prosecuting attorney,” he said. said in a tweet.
Crawford County Sheriff James Damante said in a statement hours earlier that his office had requested a state investigation, and that the two deputies involved in the incident had been suspended “pending the outcome of the investigation.”
“I am responsible for the actions of all my staff and will take appropriate action in this matter,” Damante said. In the report Posted on Facebook.
In a separate statement from Mulberry police, the department confirmed the incident captured on video involved one of its officers, who later said he had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a state police investigation.
“The City of Mulberry and the Mulberry Police Department take these investigations very seriously and hold all officers accountable for their actions,” officials said. Facebook registration. Appropriate action will be taken at the end of the investigation.
Law enforcement officials have not confirmed when or where the incident occurred, but Local media reports It happened Sunday at a store in Mulberry.
A user named Naomi Johnson uploaded a video of the incident on TikTok, which she shared on Twitter, adding, “My sister saw this today.” Johnson’s video appears to have been removed from TikTok on Sunday evening.
