A white police sergeant in Indiana is charged with two felonies after bodycam footage released by his department this week allegedly shows him stomping on the head of a handcuffed homeless Black man while he is being arrested.
Eric Huxley, 43, a 14-year veteran with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, was charged with official misconduct and battery with moderate bodily injury, police said.
Federal authorities also are investigating Huxley’s conduct from the Sept. 24 arrest of 39-year-old Jermaine Vaughn, who was handcuffed and on the ground when another officer’s body camera appears to show Huxley approach the suspect and stomp once on his head with his left foot.
During an emotional press conference Tuesday, Indianapolis Police Chief Randal Taylor called Huxley’s actions “outrageous” and “totally uncalled for.” Police said Huxley is suspended without pay and Taylor will recommend him for termination.
“I’m upset. It hurts me to see any of our officers treat someone the way that you’re going to see here shortly. No excuse for it,” Taylor said, while referring to the bodycam footage released of Vaughn’s arrest for alleged disorderly conduct. “I promised this community, and I promised our officers, that I would be transparent. That’s in good times and bad times. This is a bad time.”
The department has consulted with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in the case, police said.
A statement Wednesday from the Acting U.S. Attorney John E. Childress, with the Southern District of Indiana, said: “The United States Attorney’s Office is aware of the incident involving an IMPD officer and Jermaine Vaughn. Our office and the FBI have opened an investigation, and if the investigation reveals prosecutable violations of any federal criminal statutes, the Department will take appropriate action.”
Huxley’s attorney, John Kautzman, said in a statement his client looks forward to proving he did not act illegally or with criminal intent.
“Over the course of his nearly 15-year career, Sgt. Huxley has been an exemplary police officer. He has never before faced criminal charges or any type of department discipline or excessive force allegations,” Kautzman said.
“He is very sorry about any pain caused to Mr. Vaughn as a result of his actions and the negative scrutiny upon his Department and fellow officers. This incident resulted from his perception of the need to attempt a trained police technique that unfortunately struck Mr Vaughn in an unintended area of his body.”
Police on Tuesday also said two other officers involved in Vaughn’s arrest, Sgt. Christopher Kibbey, a 21-year veteran, and Officer Matthew Shores, who has 23 years in the department, were placed on administrative duty pending a completion of an internal investigation. Neither Kibbey nor Shores could immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Police said video of Vaughn’s arrest was captured on the officers’ bodycams, but the alleged stomp to the head was not shown on Huxley’s body camera. The three officers all had their body cameras on while Vaughn was arrested, police said.
As part of the internal investigation, Taylor said the officers’ histories of use-of-force incidents will be reviewed, as well as any use-of-force incidents Huxley reviewed as a supervisor.
Each of the police videos released are about one-minute in length. The videos were edited by police. NBC News does not know what preceded the videos, nor what occurred shortly after.
Police said Shores’ video captures Huxley’s alleged stomp to Vaughn’s head. Both videos also capture, from different vantage points, Shores taking Vaughn to the ground.
In Shores’ bodycam video, Vaughn appears to tell an officer, “Nobody cares what you do anymore,” multiple times, before an officer appears to tells him to lean back, and pushes Vaughn in the upper-chest multiple times.
A struggle ensues, and the officer looks like he takes Vaughn to the ground. That’s when Huxley, police said, is seen stomping on Vaughn’s head. Shortly before the video ends, someone can be heard yelling “police brutality.”
In a probable cause affidavit listing Huxley’s charges, an investigator wrote she spoke with Vaughn who said he had been homeless for about a year and was practicing free speech in the city’s Monument Circle before he was arrested. The affidavit also said Huxley can be heard saying in unreleased body camera footage, “I accidently kicked him in his face. I was attempting to put my foot on his shoulder and I accidently kicked him in his face.”
NBC affiliate WTHR in Indianapolis, reports the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police said it welcomed the investigation.
“We too are troubled by the images within this video. We welcome a full and forthright review of the related facts involved. While the camera’s perspective is only one of many…it is an important perspective nonetheless,” the group said. “Gathering such factors is one of several reasons our organization was the first to call for such a body worn camera system to be implemented within the IMPD. Now that we know such a review is underway, we will continue to monitor this matter and await its final determinations.”
Vaughn’s relatives could not be immediately reached Thursday.
WTHR also reported Vaughn’s sister Whittney Malone, said, “It was very shocking for my mother to call me and say he was on the news and getting his face stomped in by a sergeant.”
Malone told the TV station her family has been looking for Vaughn for two years.
“You never know what you’re going to do or say until it happens to you or someone you love,” Malone said.
She said before Vaughn developed paranoid schizophrenia, he was a good, hard-working man.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
