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Body camera footage was released on Wednesday showing a Louisiana State Police soldier repeatedly hitting a black man on the head and chest with a flashlight as the man was pinned to the ground after a traffic control in 2019, in what the white soldier called “pain compliance.”
The beating left the man, Aaron Larry Bowman, with a broken jaw, three fractured ribs, a broken wrist and a gash on his head that required six staples to close, said a lawyer representing him in a civil rights lawsuit filed last year. in Louisiana against the state police.
The soldier, Jacob Brown, 31, of Rayville, La., Was arrested in February on charges of second-degree aggravated assault and embezzlement in connection with the assault, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Mr Brown, who faces criminal charges in two unrelated cases of excessive force, resigned a month later.
In the video from the night of May 30, 2019, which was obtained and first published by The Associated Press, Mr. Bowman is pleading with law enforcement officers in Monroe, Louisiana, that he is cooperating with them. He was hit about 18 times by Mr. Brown with a flashlight while lying face down on the ground.
“I can’t resist,” Mr. Bowman shouts between blows. “I can’t resist. He was then taken to hospital.
Mr Bowman, who is now 46 years old and lives in Monroe, has been charged with resisting a police officer with force or violence, bodily harm to a police officer, flight from a police officer and improper use of lanes.
In an offense report filed with the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office, a deputy said Mr. Bowman ignored his lights and sirens as he tried to stop him after the SUV Mr. Bowman was driving crossed the center line of a road. The deputy said Mr Bowman hit him on the head with a closed fist and got into a fight with him after telling officers he was afraid to stop and wanted to park the vehicle home in case he goes to jail.
The encounter came less than three weeks after the death of another black motorist, Ronald Greene, whose body camera images showed he was dragged, beaten and shocked with a stun gun by soldiers as he ‘he was in custody outside Monroe. The soldiers were assigned to F Troop in Monroe, where Mr. Brown was based.
Now the subject of a Justice Department investigation into police brutality and obstruction, Louisiana state police have attributed the cause of death to Mr. Greene in a car crash after a lawsuit at high speed and initially made no mention of the use of force by soldiers. At least four soldiers in Louisiana face charges related to excessive force.
A Louisiana State Police spokeswoman said in an email Wednesday that an investigation determined that Mr Brown’s body camera footage of his meeting with Mr Bowman was “intentionally wrong. labeled “.
“As the investigation continued, detectives concluded that Brown had engaged in excessive and unjustifiable action and failed to report the use of force to his supervisors,” the spokeswoman said. Lieutenant Melissa Matey.
An attorney for Mr Brown declined to comment on Wednesday.
According to court documents in another such case, Mr Brown boasted in text messages to several other soldiers that he used force against a black man who led officers to a May 2020 chase in Franklin Parish, The.
“He’s going to be in pain tomorrow, that’s for sure,” wrote Mr. Brown. “LMAO… warms my heart to know that we could educate this young man. “
When investigators questioned Mr Brown about his use of force against Mr Bowman, he told them he had used a flashlight as a baton in what he called “respect for pain” , according to an affidavit.
An attorney for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which includes the state police, referred questions to the state attorney general’s office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comments Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Shreveport, Louisiana, confirmed in an email Wednesday that the FBI and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division are investigating the case.
“If the investigation reveals prosecutable violations of federal criminal laws, the department will take appropriate action,” spokeswoman Vicki T. Chance said.
A lawyer who represents Mr Bowman and Mr Greene’s family said on Wednesday Mr Bowman first saw the body camera footage about a month ago and was traumatized by it. He said Louisiana state police were forced to turn the tape over to Mr. Bowman’s defense attorney as he battled the criminal charges against him.
“It’s something he relives every day,” said attorney Ron Haley. “The emotional scars will never be healed from this.”
Keith Whiddon, a defense attorney for Mr Bowman, said on Wednesday his client had pleaded not guilty to all four counts against him. Mr. Bowman’s next court appearance is scheduled for September 20.
The AP did not say how he obtained the body camera images, which were obtained later Wednesday by The New York Times. The AP, citing state police records, reported that Mr Brown had been implicated in 23 cases involving the use of force, dating from 2015, including 19 targeting blacks.
Louisiana state police did not immediately make those records available on Wednesday. The agency spokeswoman said this would require a request for public documents, for which there is a long waiting list.
She also did not immediately confirm the number of use of force cases involving Mr Brown, whom WBRZ television reported last October to be the son of Bob Brown, a former deputy police superintendent. of Louisiana State and its now retired leader. Staff.
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