Several police officers from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee are under investigation after a video showed them beating an unarmed Black man.
As News Channel 9 ABC reports, the Hamilton County District Attorney's Office and the Tennesse Bureau of Investigation are looking into the beating of Reginald Arrington, Jr. on May 23. The arrest affidavit indicates that police respondede to reports of a Black man asking women for directions, and were informed he "may have a weapon in his pocket." Additionally, the affidavit says, "Arrington began exhibiting erratic behavior by emptying out his pockets saying he didn't want to get shot."
The arrest report says police claim that when Arrington was found, he was walking on "the wrong side of the road." He allegedly gave police a wrong name, and laid down on the road with his hands stretched out. Officers claimed that when they attempted to take him to a patrol car, he "twisted his body" and attempted to pull away. In the footage that has been released, Arrington can be seen twisting his body as he was handcuffed, it also debunks one of the officers claims.
"We started trying to get him into the car and he tried to disarm Brian," one deputy said in the dash cam footage that was released. "They were fighting over the gun. He was kicking." The video does not show Arrington, who was in handcuffs at the time he was beaten, reach for a weapon. Multiple officers take out their batons in the clip to beat Arrington, and at one point he asked, "What did I do? I didn't even do nothing."
The deputy who wrote the report said Arrington put officers "[at] risk for serious injury or death."
District Attorney General Neal Pinkston has not made any decisions regarding charges against the officers, but he did say the footage was "troubling." Arrington faced a number of charges, but they were subsequently dropped by the D.A.'s office on Tuesday. Sheriff Jim Hammond, meanwhile, said that Pinkston "has chosen to indict my deputies in the court of public opinion prior to facts being presented in a court of law."
