Three Arkansas police officers have been taken off duty, and at least two of them have been officially suspended, after a video showing them pummeling a man went around the internet. The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Washington Post that two of their officers were suspended. NBC News reports that all three officers were suspended. However, the post says that the third officer, from the city of Mulberry, seems to have been put on administrative leave.
The Arkansas State Police have also said they are opening an investigation into what happened. The man being beaten by the three officers is reportedly 27-year-old South Carolina resident Randall Worcester. Worcester was reportedly wanted for threatening a convenience store clerk in the area. The Arkansas police involved have yet to put forth an official excuse for sending Worcester to the hospital before charging him with a slew of counts, including “refusal to submit.”
The charges against Worcester, who was booked into the county jail, include “second-degree battery, resisting arrest, refusal to submit, possessing an instrument of crime, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, terroristic threatening, and second-degree assault.” The Associated Press ran with a detail that Worcester pushed a deputy to the ground and punched him in the head before being set upon by all three officers.
The video of the incident is violent. All three officers can be seen holding Worcester down on the ground of a parking lot, driving knees into his body and legs, while also repeatedly punching him in the head. At one point an officer grabs Worcester by the hair and slams his face into the concrete.
Warning: The video is violent and disturbing.
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