25 Aug 2014
Police authorities in Greenville, South Carolina are reviewing video of an arrest at a Walmart store Saturday afternoon where an officer can be seen repeatedly punching a suspect in the head as horrified shoppers begged him to stop.
In cell phone footage provided to WSPA, police officers can be seen surrounding a man lying on the floor in a prone position. According to the police report, the man had been acting erratically in front of the store and appeared to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. The man told a responding deputy “I’m 911,” before entering the store at which time officers decided to take him into custody.
According to Greenville County Master Deputy Jonathan Smith, a second deputy tasered the man when he resisted arrest. In the video, officers can be seen wrestling with the man on the ground as one officer repeatedly punches the man in the head as one shopper can be heard saying, “Please don’t punch him like that. Please don’t. Don’t punch him no more.”
According to one witness, he thought the police went too far.
“There were a lot of women in tears saying ‘hey, stop stop,”said David Chimera. “There was no call for that, I don’t know why they did it.”
According to authorities the man, whose identity was not released, was taken to a Greenville hospital for observation.
Smith said the investigators are reviewing the cell phone videos as well as security camera footage from Walmart and would have no comment until the review was complete.