Disturbing bodycam footage showed a Black man from Grand Rapids, Michigan being punched in the face at least six times by a police officer after he pulled him over for littering.
TMZ shared the released video of the incident that happened on March 26 in which Diabate Hood was physically assaulted by police after he tried to resist arrest.
In the video, Hood's other two passengers complied with the police and stepped out of the vehicle, but Hood attempted to flee by jumping out of the driver's seat and exiting from the passenger side door.
That's when Hood was pounced on and held down by three officers—one of whom delivered several blows to his face as Hood screamed.
One of the officers was heard yelling, "stop resisting."
TMZ reported:
"According to Grand Rapids police ... the traffic stop was part of its Operation: Safe Neighborhoods program in response to an uptick of violent crime in the area, and claim they had 'timely and accurate intelligence' to justify it."
Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) Chief Eric Payne said:
"This is the police work that I expect from my personnel."
It was unclear if Payne was referring to the unnecessary punching.
The littering violation turned into three felony arrests after officers claimed to have found four weapons inside Hood's vehicle.
WARNING: violence
Tyrone Bynum—the lawyer representing the three men in the car—claimed the police had no right to ask them to get out of the car in the first place.
Bynum plans to file a complaint with both Grand Rapids police and the U.S Department of Justice over what he described was an arrest involving racial profiling.
He said in a statement:
"What I saw in the video was another George Floyd."
Byrnum also noted one of the officers was heard in the video saying Hood was "lucky he's not dead."
While Hood was being restrained by the three officers, he uttered a hauntingly familiar phrase—"I can't breathe."
Footage from Hood's violent arrest surfaced just as the nation breathed a sigh of relief after a former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty on three charges for the murder of George Floyd—who died after crying out for his mother and saying he couldn't breathe as the convicted officer knelt on his neck for over nine minutes last May.
Footage from Floyd's death sparked worldwide outrage and protests against systemic racism and police brutality.
Regarding Hood's arrest, the GRPD issued a statement, saying:
"As with all Use of Force incidents, the encounter was reviewed by supervisors and members of the department's Training Unit."
"To date there have been no Internal Affairs complaints filed in this incident."
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