Three Arkansas officers have been removed from duty after a bystander captured them violently beating a suspect outside a Crawford County convenience store.
The incident reportedly happened after 10:30 a.m. Sunday in outside the Kountry Xpress store on Georgia Ridge Drive in Mulberry. Officials say the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Randall Worcester of Goose Creek, South Carolina, was confronted by police after being accused of threatening employees at a store in Alma earlier that day.
A now-viral video shows the officers beating the man during an arrest attempt. One officer is seen punching the man in the face and slamming his head while another one restrains him as the third officer knees the suspect.
In a statement released Sunday night, the Arkansas State Police said an investigation had been launched into “the use of force by two Crawford County sheriff’s deputies and a Mulberry police officer.”
Two of the officers who are deputies with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office were suspended, and the third, an officer with the Mulberry Police Department, was placed on administrative leave.
“I hold all my employees accountable for their actions and will take appropriate measures in this matter,” Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante said while announcing the two officers from his department have been suspended “pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Mulberry Police Department said, “The city of Mulberry and the Mulberry Police Department takes these investigations very seriously and holds all their officers accountable for their actions,” while announcing the officer involved in the incident from their department has been placed on administrative leave.
The suspect was later charged with second-degree battery, resisting arrest, refusal to submit, possessing an instrument of crime, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, terroristic threatening and second-degree assault.
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