‘I’m not resisting’: Video shows police officer beating Black man with flashlight
‘I kept thinking I was going to die that night’
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Body camera footage kept under wraps for over two years of a Louisiana officer beating a Black man with a flashlight 18 times has been released.
The Louisiana State Police trooper later defended the violence as “pain compliance” despite the man yelling “I’m not resisting! I’m not resisting!” between the officer’s blows.
The video obtained by the Associated Press shows a violent traffic stop from May 2019 that resulted in a broken jaw, three broken ribs, a broken wrist, and a gash to the head that required six staples for 46-year-old Aaron Larry Bowman.
Another Black man, Ronald Greene, had died in the custody of the same police agency just weeks previously. Video of Mr Greene’s death was finally released earlier this year.
Federal prosecutors are looking into both incidents as part of an investigation into police brutality.
State Police only investigated the assault on Mr Bowman 536 days after it took place despite it being on camera, and only did so after Mr Bowman initiated a civil lawsuit.
On Wednesday, State Police said Jacob Brown, the white officer who beat Mr Bowman “engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions,” didn’t report the use of force to his supervisors and “intentionally mislabeled” the body camera footage.
Since 2015, Mr Brown was active in 23 incidents where force was used, 19 of which involved Black people, according to State Police records. Mr Brown resigned in March. He’s facing state charges of second-degree battery and malfeasance following the assault of Mr Bowman, and other charges stemming from two other violent arrests of Black motorists.
Referring to one of the motorists, Mr Brown wrote in a group chat with other officers that the suspect was “gonna be sore” and “it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man”.
Deputies from the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office had already removed Mr Bowman from his car and forced him to the ground when Mr Brown arrived, later telling investigators that he “was in the area and was trying to get involved”.
Using an 8-inch aluminium flashlight reinforced with a pointed end to shatter car glass, Mr Brown, 31, began hitting Mr Bowman two seconds after initial contact. According to a report by detectives, Mr Brown hit Mr Bowman 18 times in a 24-second span.
“Give me your f***ing hands!” he yelled. “I ain’t messing with you.”
Mr Bowman tried on repeated occasions to explain that he was a dialysis patient and that he wasn’t resisting the officers, saying: “I’m not fighting you, you’re fighting me.”
“Shut the f*** up!” Mr Brown said. “You ain’t listening.”
“I’m bleeding!” Mr Bowman said. “They hit me in the head with a flashlight!”
Investigators found that Mr Brown’s use of force was not reasonable or necessary.
Mr Bowman is also facing charges, including the battery of a police officer, resisting an officer, and improper lane usage. He denies being violent, and cannot be seen resisting officers in the video.
Mr Brown labelled his body camera video as a “citizen encounter”. Investigators said that was “an intentional attempt to hide the video from any administrative review”.
Mr Bowman’s lawyer Keith Whiddon said his client was initially told there was no video.
“In the absence of federal oversight, LSP will continue to put Louisianans at risk of constitutional rights violations,” the executive director of The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Alanah Odoms, told the AP.
Mr Bowman was recently shown the video for the first time by Justice Department prosecutors.
“I kept thinking I was going to die that night,” a tearful Mr Bowman told the AP. “It was like reliving it all over again. By watching it, I broke down all over again. I don’t want nobody to go through that.”
In a statement, Louisiana State Police said: “Our agency has carefully evaluated and examined our processes and operational practices, which led to fundamental improvements to our operations, training, and administration. These reforms have led to additional administrative and criminal investigations, ensured the implementation of critical changes throughout the department, and continued the process of building trust within the communities we serve.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report