A Columbia, S.C., police officer was suspended without pay and placed under investigation Monday when video emerged allegedly showing him repeatedly punching a man on the ground outside a music venue, The State newspaper reported.
The woman who shot the video said the man was an innocent bystander to a fight that broke out outside the club.
Tyrone Pugh, an investigator for the Columbia Police Department, was one of five officers working off-duty at the club on Sunday when an altercation erupted outside, the newspaper reported. The man being beaten on the video was “was standing near the scuffle when the officer grabbed him, threw him to the ground and started punching him,” according to The State.
Although two men at the scene were arrested and charged with fighting, the individual shown being punched was not among them, according to The State.
Authorities did not immediately identify the victim, but Columbia television station WIS spoke to a 23-year-old college student who said he is the man in the video.
“One of them grabbed me and was telling me, ‘Don’t move, don’t move!'” Quamire Carter told the station. “And another one he tackled me. And I’m like, ‘He just told me not to move, I’m not doing anything. I’m down.’ He told me to get down and I’m down already.”
See the video below, courtesy of Columbia’s WLTX-TV/News 19.
h/t Mediaite
well, cops have just got to stop doing this kind of shit. most cops have got it a lot more together. cops that abuse their position of trust deserve prosecution not protection from their counterparts. would this cop have gotten away with this if there was no video?
More gobsmacking are a couple of the other stories at WLTX19, a Gannett company.
It’s claiming that it’s: “On Your Side.”
You know, “your side.”
Effing South Carolina crackers.
Mission accomplished.
The defense is that the man is black.
We should fire the people who hire these police terrorists, as well as imprison these violent criminals.
Nothing less will work. We can eliminate police violence if we choose!