A Florida police officer’s alleged excessive force was caught on tape, with the footage showing him punching and kneeling on a man after he was already in handcuffs.
NBC News reports that the officer, from the West Palm Beach Police Department, has been hit with charges of aggravated battery due to the Nov. 1, 2019 incident. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement subsequently launched an investigation into the incident, which left John Monroque with a broken nose.
Back in 2019, Lordi responded to a 911 call from a grocery store, with the report saying that a man—Monroque—was drunk and wouldn’t leave the supermarket, per the affidavit.
Lordi said Monroque was “disrespectful” and was attempting to attack the officers. The 34-year-old cop also claimed that Monroque tried to take a gun from one of the officers, whereupon Lordi was forced “to take [him] to the ground” and that the punches were a “few softening strikes.” Footage of the incident told a different story.
Lordi punched Monroque 11 times and kneed him in the head after placing handcuffs on him. “That was uncalled for,” Monroque said during a press conference on Wednesday. “He jumped on my back and knocked me to the ground and brutalized me.”
The affidavit accuses Lordi of striking Monroque six times when he was in a headlock, and that Monroque wasn’t trying to fight Lordi off. Lordi then allegedly put Monroque on his stomach and struck him another five times.
Monroque says he lost consciousness at one point, which the affidavit appears to corroborate, stating that Monroque wasn’t moving for around a minute on tape. That’s when Lordi kneeled on the 65-year-old man for 14 seconds. However, the officer says he didn’t use excessive force on Monroque.
“When additional evidence was discovered, the West Palm Beach Police Department requested an outside investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,” the police department told WPTV.
The local police union doubts the video’s credibility, with union President Adam Myers telling the outlet that Lordi’s “actions were dictated by the actions of the person he was trying to arrest. And what I mean by that is he tried to disarm one of the officers and grabbed his gun.”
“In this case he actually used restraint,” Myers added. “He still used force that was necessary to take this person into custody.”
You can watch video of the incident below, but be warned, it is graphic.
*Trigger Warning*
