By Sean Yoes, Baltimore AFRO Editor, syoes@afro.com
As the Baltimore Police Department continues to grapple with various instances of misconduct, yet another incident of alleged police brutality captured on video is going viral.
Baltimore Sun The Baltimore Police department has suspended an officer after a viral video emerged that shows him repeatedly punching a man before tackling him to the ground. Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle said in a statement Saturday that he is “deeply disturbed by the video that surfaced online earlier today.” “The officer involved has been suspended while we investigate the totality of this incident,” he said. “Part of our investigation will be reviewing body worn camera footage.” Tuggle asked anyone who witnessed the incident to contact the Office of Professional Responsibility at 410-396-2300.
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During an incident where two BPD officers appear to be questioning a man near the intersection of Monument St. and Luzerne Ave. in East Baltimore, video shows an officer pushing an unidentified man dressed in a white tank top, pink and black shorts and a hat. When the man moves the officer’s hand away from his chest, the officer unleashes more than a dozen blows to the man’s head and body, as well as a knee to the stomach until the man being beaten falls to the ground and the two officers subdue him.
“Aye yo, you see this s—t yo?” said the man who was beaten, and seems to be bleeding from the mouth, to the men videotaping the incident.
“We got all of that yo,” was the response from several of the men. “Aye yo, what the f–k did you grill me for?” the man asks the officer who beat him, to which the officer offers an unintelligible response.
“I’m deeply disturbed by the video that surfaced online earlier today,” said T.J. Smith, chief spokesman of the Baltimore Police Department, in an e-mail.
“The officer involved has been suspended while we investigate the totality of the incident. Part of our investigation will be reviewing body worn camera footage,” Smith added. “If anyone witnessed this incident we are asking you to contact the Office of Professional Responsibility at 410-396-2300.”
