Four officers in Arizona have been placed on leave following the release of disturbing surveillance video that shows them enclosing on a black man and severely beating him to the ground.
According to Buzzfeed News, the video—which takes place in an apartment complex—was sent to Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista by a “member of the community.”
Batista told Fox 10 News that the person included a message with the video. “‘Hey, this looks very alarming, and I need you to look at it,’” he said, adding, “I examined it, and I immediately opened up an investigation.”
Batista also took the video public.
The footage was recorded late at night on May 23, and shows a man—who has since been identified as Robert Johnson—standing along a rail in his apartment building while speaking on the phone. Another man is sitting along a wall and talking to a cop, as an elevator door opens and more cops arrive. They then begin to frisk Johnson.
No weapons were found on Johnson, Batista told AZ Central. The officers asked him to move away from the railing and sit against the wall.
Johnson followed and leaned against the wall, while still on his phone. Instantly, the officers grabbed him and started punching him in the head and face. He fell to the ground, and they then dragged and cuffed him.
According to Batista, Johnson didn’t follow the officers’ orders to sit on the ground. But the police chief acknowledged that the use of force was unneeded.
“I don't feel that our officers were at their best,” he said. “I don't feel this situation needed to go the way that it went.”
A Mesa Police Department spokesperson confirmed that the four cops—three officers and one sergeant—have been put on administrative leave, with an investigation under way.
This week, Batista shared with local news outlets that he will begin to initiate policy changes to “limit the opportunity where we will apply strikes to a person's face or head absent the supporting conditions for that to occur,” and guarantee more “stringent reporting of these events.”
According to Johnson’s attorney Benjamin Taylor, the incident occurred in the apartment building where Johnson lives, and that night in particular, he was helping his friend, who was the other man in the video. Taylor remarked that his client was “cooperative and following police instructions.”
“Mr. Johnson was sitting peacefully against a wall when the assault began. He did not resist,” Taylor said in a joint statement with fellow attorney Joel Robbins and pastor Andre Miller. “The misconduct of these officers would have gone unnoticed if it had not been captured by surveillance videos at the apartment complex where the assault occurred.”
Taylor shared that Johnson is being treated for “major injuries” from the beating.
“He's doing terribly,” Taylor told BuzzFeed News. “He did not deserve the beating he took from that many officers. Mesa police have a culture of hurting and shooting and killing people and this is just another incident that shows how badly this department needs to be cleaned up.”
