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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Policing experts say Arkansas police officers used excessive force in the deadly beating and violent arrest of a man accused of threatening a woman with a knife Sunday, describing it as unjustified or criminal. Attorney for Randal Worcester, 27 said Tuesday that the violent arrest was part of an alleged pattern of excessive force by the sheriff deputy, The Associated Press reports.
A bystander
recorded the brutal attack in the small town of Mulberry which saw the
suspension of all three officers involved in the incident. Federal and state
law enforcement have opened investigation into the Sunday arrest video that
appeared to show an Arkansas sheriff’s deputy repeatedly punching and
kneeing Worcester in the head, grabbing
his hair and then slamming him against the pavement. Another officer held
Worcester down while a third officer repeatedly kneed him.
Blows to the
head, a potential deadly use of force is only necessary when a suspect poses a
serious and current threat, according to policing experts.
Worcester
Attorney, Carrie Jernigan accused Levi White, the deputy who punched him of
using excessive force against other people she’s representing.
“There’s
something going on and we just need to get it addressed,” she said during a
Tuesday news conference with her two other clients, according to The Associated
Press.
The
Associated Press reported that Russell Wood, an attorney representing the two
Crawford County sheriff’s deputies dismissed the 34-second clip as not showing
everything that happened, arguing that Worcester had earlier attacked one of
the deputies, which left him with a concussion.
He noted
that deputy’s “pain compliance strikes” didn’t do any “damage” and that
Worcester’s own violence authorized the officers to use “all necessary force,”
according to The Associated Press.
“Depending
on your level of resistance, (officers) could use defensive strikes or what
they call pain strikes to get compliance, but that’s not a blow to the head,”
said Geoffrey Alpert, according to The Associated Press. Alpert who is a
University of South Carolina criminology professor said “he would have to be doing
something pretty serious to get hit in the head like that.”
Police had
received reports about a man making threats outside of a convenience store in
Mulberry, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, near the
Oklahoma state line, The Associated Press reported.
When
officers arrived at the convenience store, Worcester turned over an unspecified
“weapon” but became violent, Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante said,
according to The Associated Press. The
officers involved are deputies Zack King and White and local police officer
Thell Riddie.
Wood said
the suspect was threatening a woman with a knife but when White confronted him,
he grabbed him by the legs and slammed him to the ground, stunning the deputy.
Worcester then climbed onto White and “began striking him on the back of the
head and face,” The Associated Press quoted the attorney as saying.
Worcester was
treated at a hospital on Sunday and later jailed on charges including
second-degree battery and resisting arrest.
On Monday
the suspect was released on a $15,000 bond.