Georgia deputy placed on leave after viral video captures assault on Black man during arrest: ‘Don’t kill him!’
The Black man can be seen struggling under the weight of two officers as one strikes him multiple times in the face
A video was posted to social media Friday showing a man being assaulted by a deputy sheriff in Clayton County, miles south of Atlanta.
The man was apparently taken from the back seat of a ridesharing car when the assault took place, the caption to the Instagram post publishing the video said.
In the video, two deputies of the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office are seen forcibly restraining a Black man on the road. One sheriff is seen punching the man in his side and his face.
A woman recording the video is heard pleading with the deputies, “Get off of him. Get the f— off of him! No!” and “He said he can’t breathe!” A child’s scream can be heard in the background as the incident plays out.
“Don’t kill him!” she shouted.
The man is seen struggling and eventually his legs flailing as the deputies both lay on top of him.
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A third law enforcement officer comes into frame and handcuffs one of the man’s hands as the woman cries out, “He’s bleeding from his nose!”
Once handcuffed, the two deputies get off of the man, whose face was bloodied and who appeared to be unconscious. He is then turned over on his stomach and both his arms are handcuffed behind his back.
A second video from a wider angle was captured by a bystander and posted to Instagram by a friend, Korey Epps. The bystander’s video shows a screaming child running around the officers and eventually getting back into the car.
While filming, the bystander can be heard yelling at the deputies, “Hey, get the f— up off of him!”
While the circumstances which led to the assault are still unclear, several social media accounts state that the man and woman were in a Lyft car, which can be seen in the second video.
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The initial video shot by the woman was posted to Twitter by @davenewworld_2, with the caption, “Police in Georgia pull over a Lyft driver then assault a passenger for not having his ID.”
In the first video taken by the woman, the third law enforcement officer instructs the woman to move back and asks about the vehicle and the driver who was still in the vehicle. “He was giving us a ride,” the woman said of the driver.
The Instagram profile @_passionlove95, who posted the cellphone footage taken by the woman at the scene, identified the man assaulted as her “cousin.” Her post also stated that he was riding in a Lyft with his girlfriend, presumably the woman who recorded the incident.
TheGrio placed a request for comment with the Instagram user. The outlet did not receive a response at time of publish.
The caption stated that the officers asked the passenger for his ID and pulled him out of the car for saying “I’m not driving.”
The Clayton County Sheriff’s office issued a statement that Sheriff Victor Hill has ordered the entire Internal Affairs Unit to “come in and begin an investigation” in regard to the video of the deputy using “physical force on a man.” The deputy was not named.
As of now, one of the deputies from the video, who has yet to be identified, is now on administrative leave pending the investigation.
The health status of the attacked man is unknown at this time.
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