SEATTLE — The Seattle Police Department is conducting an internal investigation into an officer who allegedly roughed up an innocent detainee, and it was all caught on film.
Seattle police detained three people including one Hispanic man in their hunt for possible armed robbery suspects. The video shows a man lying face down without handcuffs and not under arrest.
On the video, you can hear an officer telling the man: “You got me? I’m going to beat the (expletive) Mexican piss out of you homey. You feel me?”
Seconds later, the man moves his hand, appearing to wipe his eye. The officer kicks him in the head as he wipes his boot on his hand. A female officer stomps on the his leg.
Police realize they detained the wrong man, lift him up, and let him go. The video does not show a medic arriving on scene, even though the man has cuts on his face, and appears to have trouble walking.
“I want you to relax your weight on the car, OK?” an officer is heard saying. “Put your hands back so you don’t fall down.”
A freelance photographer captured the video.
“So, they kicked you in the head man?” the photographer asked the victim. “Yeah they did,” he replied.
When asked why, the victim replied: “I don’t know. They just kicked me in the head, they knocked me in the head.” He added he had nothing to do with what was going on.
One of the officers involved has already apologized:
SEATTLE — A 15-year-veteran of the Seattle police force, seen in a video roughing up an innocent detainee and saying ethnic slurs, came forward Friday evening to publicly apologize.
Detective Shandy Cobane gave a tearful statement expressing remorse for not only his derogatory comments, but for shedding a negative light on the Seattle police department.
“At no time did I ever dream that I would do anything that would bring such negative notoriety to my department,” Cobane said. “Sadly, I did.”
And if there’s any justice, he’ll be facing jail time for this.