Last week, someone caught two Seattle police officers hitting a guy with their batons at a bus stop. The officers are now being investigated.
A man was hit with a baton by two police officers last Friday afternoon. The video was shared online and was first reported by NBC affiliate KING 5-TV. In the 40-second video, one of the police officers seems to grab the man by the hair and then pins him down with his knee.
What happened before the police started beating the man is not shown on the tape.
A city watchdog group in Seattle called the Office of Police Accountability said it was looking into what happened.
Sue Rahr, who took over as interim police chief of the city last week from the fired Adrian Diaz, said she had watched the video and knew why it had caused so much concern.
According to her, while OPA does a full investigation as needed by our accountability process, her staff is gathering information for her to look over, such as all available videos, so she has a fuller picture of what happened.
When asked right away if the officers had been put on administrative leave while the investigation is going on, the police department did not reply. The department also didn’t answer when asked about the man’s name, condition, and whether he had been arrested or charged with a crime. The police union, the Seattle Police Officers Guild, did not respond right away to a request for comment.
The investigation is happening at a tough time for the cops. Mayor Bruce Harrell said last week that Rahr would take over for Diaz. Diaz is being sued by at least six police officers who say he is biased against women and people of color.
Deeanthony Marcell made the video, but he could not be reached for comment at the numbers given or through his Instagram account, where he also posted the video. As of Thursday afternoon, almost 15,000 people had watched the film he put on Instagram. Marcell told KING 5-TV that he chose to record what he saw while he was on a bus.
He told the station that he didn’t know what happened before the beating but that he thought he was seeing an unfair act.
He said, “It’s never OK.” “That’s the only reason I recorded it.”
