(RepublicanInformer.com)- Three Arkansas cops were suspended after a video showed them punching a suspect at a gas station, prompting anger around the country.
Sunday morning, police said 27-year-old Randall Worcester threatened a convenience store clerk in Mulberry, Ark.
When cops confronted him, he allegedly threw a deputy to the ground and hit him in the head, resulting in his arrest captured in the film.
Footage showed three officers pounding the man.
One cop repeatedly hits him in the head with clenched fists after he’s handcuffed and, at one point, lifts and slams his head on the ground. Another knees the man’s back and leg.
The officers are also shown pinning the man’s head down and hitting him with his hood held over his face. The footage shows officers shouting and pointing at the cameraman.
Three officers shown in the video are unidentified.
Naomi Johnson’s sister filmed the incident and posted it on Snapchat. Jackson inquired where to send it to report the officers’ misbehavior.
Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante said two deputies were suspended pending the state police investigation and internal review. Also suspended was a Mulberry cop.
Damante remarked, “I’ll hold all my employees accountable for their acts.”
Mulberry Police Chief Shannon Gregory said the officer is on leave awaiting the investigation’s outcome.
Gregory said Mulberry and its police department “take these inquiries seriously.”
The incident occurred on Sunday, 10:40 a.m. local time, at the Kountry Xpress at 1107 Georgia Ridge Dr. in Mulberry, 135 miles northwest of Little Rock.
Naomi Johnson’s sister reported she observed a shoeless man chatting to cops at a gas station. She observed the man try to flee but got tackled.
According to the Arkansas Times, Johnson’s sister suspected he was mentally ill.
The publication stated Johnson’s sister was in her car with a friend. The pair can be heard yelling at the cop to stop hitting the man.
One officer instructs the car’s occupants to ‘back the f**k up, according to the video.
Goose Creek, South Carolina’s Worcester, was arrested and hospitalized. Police accuse him of terroristic threatening, resisting arrest, and assault.
Special Agents of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division are investigating the incident in the video, which occurred outside a convenience store in Dyer (Crawford County).
Mayor Gary Baxter was ‘shocked and horrified’ and pledged an investigation.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson committed to investigating.
