Four Louisiana officers suspended after Black man dies following beating

The District Attorney says he did not receive vital information 'essential to conduct a thorough and complete review' until two months later

Tommie McGlothen, a Black man in Louisiana who died in police custody in early April, was being arrested after getting into a fight with another man.

Biba Adams

Jun 9, 2020

Tommie McGlothen, a Black man in Shreveport, Louisiana, died in police custody in early April. However, accurate information about his death took almost two months to reach the District Attorney from the police.

The cellphone video of the encounter shows McGlothen being hit by a white male officer as a Black female officer holds him down. s the female officer stands up, the male cop kicks him.

McGlothen is later seen being punched multiple times and stiffening his body as if being tased. A blurry video of the scene shows an officer striking McGlothen with a baton. Witnesses told the news outlet that the man spat in the Black female officer’s face and, in return, she punched McGlothen twice in the face.

Family members and witnesses have said that it is possible that the man was experiencing a mental health episode. His family was told McGlothen died of a heart attack, however, they contend that he had a swollen eye and a broken nose.

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“This does not match the report that police offered,” organizers wrote in a social media post, “Something isn’t adding up, and we want justice.”

Information about the incident was not submitted to the Caddo Parrish District Attorney until 57 days later. In a statement, DA James E. Stewart said that upon their initial review of the file, his office found it to be “missing reports, statements, downloads and other vital information that is essential to conduct a thorough and complete review.”

Protests related to McGlothin’s death took place in a peaceful demonstration on Saturday where Mayor Adrian Perkins encouraged cooperative effort. “The only way we’re going to get the wide, sweeping change that we need to tear down the walls of racial injustice is that we all stick together.”

According to a report in KSLA, McGLothin was being arrested after getting into a fight with another man when police detained him.

All four officers involved were placed on departmental leave on June 8.

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