In newly released audio, a Louisiana State Trooper describes how he fatally beat a black man, named Ronald Greene.
Just after midnight on May 10, 2019, north of Monroe, La., police pursued Greene over an unspecified traffic violation. Greene reportedly refused to pull over, and police drove after him, but eventually, Greene crashed. A report was released stating that Greene was arrested following a “struggle.”
“Greene was taken into custody after resisting arrest and a struggle with troopers,” the report said, adding that Greene “became unresponsive” and died on his way to the hospital. The report did not mention any type of force by the state troopers. Following the incident, the F.B.I., the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced a federal investigation into the matter.
Now, new audio has been released from a trooper’s body-camera microphone. In the audio, a trooper details how he brutally beat Greene, and “all of a sudden he just went limp.” “I beat the ever-living f— out of him,” the trooper said in a 27-second audio clip obtained by The Associated Press. In their initial report, police claimed the injuries Greene sustained were from Greene’s car crash.
Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth, the officer who was recorded in the audio, died last week in a single-car crash. The tape has been supported by two law enforcement officials who knew about the incident; State Police did not dispute the tape’s authenticity, A.B.C. News reports.
“Choked him and everything else trying to get him under control,” Hollingsworth is heard saying, apparently in his part of a phone conversation with a colleague. “We finally got him in handcuffs when a third man got there, and the son of a b—– was still fighting him, was still wrestling with him trying to hold him down,” Hollingsworth said. “He was spitting blood everywhere, and all of a sudden, he just went limp.”
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Greene’s family, is calling for the release of the full tape. “It is shocking that this evidence has been withheld for over a year,” Merritt said. In the meantime, Greene’s family has filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit alleging state troopers “brutalized” Greene, shocked him three times with a stun gun, and left him “beaten, bloodied and in cardiac arrest.” Greene was a barber who lived in Florida for several years. He was not known to be wanted on any charges at the time of the police chase, Jim Mustian of the Associated Press reports.
