A disturbing video has emerged out of Chattanooga, Tennessee showing white police officers brutally beating a handcuffed black man as he lay on the ground, pleading for them to stop.
“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop! No! Ma, they’re cutting my air off!” Reginald Arrington Jr, an Ohio native, can be heard pleading on the dashcam footage as he lay on the ground in handcuffs. Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston released the video and has requested the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) investigate the incident that occurred in Hamilton County on May 23rd, 2020, just two days before the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“I have not made a final determination on anything related to this case,” said General Pinkston, “but what I saw in the videos was troubling. That’s why I’m requesting a thorough investigation to ascertain whether or not excessive force was used in this incident.”
Several deputies with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department arrested Arrington for resisting arrest, simple assault on police, criminal impersonation, pedestrian in roadway, and four counts of aggravated assault on police after getting into a physical altercation with the officers. All charges have since been dropped.
While Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond has ordered an administrative review of the beating, he has ruled against placing the deputies on administrative leave. The officers identified as Sgt. Mickey Rountree, Cpl. Brian Killingsworth and deputies Nick Dewey, Todd Cook, and Charlene Choate will remain on duty.
In part of his statement in response to the footage being released, Hammond said that “By releasing this video, along with dismissing Arrington’s charges, General Pinkston essentially removed my deputies’ ability to offer direct testimony under oath pertaining to their actions and their training utilized in this incident.” He went on to add, “By hastily dismissing charges and releasing this video without allowing a legal, preliminary probable cause hearing to take place, I feel General Pinkston’s actions will improperly influence and sensationalize the events of this incident to the public without allowing the legal process to effectively take place.”
The officers had been called to the area after a woman who resides in the 4800 block of Waverly Court in Ooltewah called 911 to report that a Black man in a blue jumpsuit was acting suspiciously. He was reportedly walked up to women and “asking them questions and asked her how to get out of the neighborhood,” court records state. Once the officers responded to the scene, they located Arrington walking south on Old Lee Highway “in violation of the pedestrian on roadway law.” Before his arrest, deputies questioned Arrington, who told them that his vehicle had broken down at a nearby motel, and it was leaking gasoline. He told officers that he’d come to the neighborhood where a female friend of his lived, but she told him to leave.⠀
According to court docs, the officers claim that Arrington provided a false name and date of birth. They also claimed in the arrest affidavit that Arrington began displaying “erratic behavior” by emptying his pockets and “saying he didn’t want to get shot.”
“He then laid down in the roadway with his hands stretched out,” the affidavit reads. “Deputies advised him that was not necessary and instructed him to get up. He was then placed under arrest for violation of pedestrian on roadway law.”
However, the officers claim that once they escorted Arrington to a patrol car, he grabbed Killingsworth’s gun and “made several attempts to pull it from his holster.” But, this does not seem feasible as Arrington was already handcuffed at the time, and dashcam footage shows both of his hands being held by a deputy. “Don’t be stupid,” one deputy is heard saying, to which Arrington responded with, “I didn’t do nothing!” as he lay in fetal position on the ground while the four officers brutally beat him with batons.
“Please stop,” Arrington cries. During the attack, his legs raise up multiple times as he screams. The deputies then screamed back, “Put your legs down! Relax!” as they all continued to beat him.
Arrington pleads, “You’re going to kill me,” to which an officer replies, “Just relax. That’s all you gotta do. Relax.” However, he was continually beaten during the exchange.
The handcuffed man was beaten for over five minutes before his limp body was placed in the back of a patrol car.
“The video’s horrific, and we believe that ultimately, everyone will make the right call as it relates to this unfortunate incident that Mr. Arrington was subject of,” Arrington’s civil attorneys, Troy Bowlin II and Mark Stephens, said. The attorneys are also conducting their own independent investigation of the incident.
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