Three US police officers have been suspended after footage emerged online showing them violently beating a man during an arrest in southern Arkansas, authorities said on Sunday evening.
In the video, which sparked outrage on social media, officers hold down a white man, punching him hard in the head and kneeing his legs, and slamming his face into the ground concreted.
“It’s serious,” says a person off camera. When passers-by try to approach the police, one of them orders them to stay away.
Videos showing police violence, often against African-Americans, regularly make headlines in the United States, a country still marked by the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer in May 2020.
“Like many of you, I was shocked and sickened by what I saw,” Gary Baxter, mayor of the town where the video was filmed, Mulberry, said in a statement announcing that the one of the officers had been placed on “administrative leave” pending the results of an investigation.
The other two officers, who work for Crawford County, were also suspended, with the sheriff promising he would take “appropriate action.”
The violent arrest happened around 3:40 p.m. local time on Sunday outside a grocery store, according to Arkansas State Police, who have opened an investigation into “the use of force by the police.
The victim, Randall Worcester, 27, was transported to a hospital before being imprisoned, according to the same source. He is the subject of several counts, including refusing to comply, resisting arrest and assault.
The suspect is accused of threatening a gas station employee, who called police, Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante told local 40/29 channel.
Randall Worcester was cooperative at first, before becoming violent and trying to attack the police, Mr Damante said.
The state’s Republican Governor, Asa Hutchinson, said on Twitter that he had spoken with the state’s police chief, saying the facts would be “investigated in accordance with video evidence and the request of the prosecutor”.