Two years after her son’s death, Mona Hardin has finally seen the bodycam footage that captures the fatal altercation between Ronald Greene and Louisiana police.
The Louisiana State Police agency released nine bodycam and dashcam videos on Friday after the Associated Press published footage they obtained. The videos show Greene’s violent arrest near Monroe, Louisiana, during which officers kicked, punched, choked, tased, and dragged the 49-year-old.
Greene died following that arrest in May 2019 after he led police on a high-speed chase. Much of the brutalization occurred while Greene was already handcuffed. At one point, Greene tried to roll over in what some suspect was an attempt to breathe, and officers ordered him to stay face down on his stomach.
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The officers identified are Louisiana State Troopers Chris Hollingsworth, Dakota DeMoss, and Kory York. In another clip, officer Chris Hollingsworth, who died in 2020, is heard saying, “I beat the ever-living f— out of him. Choked him and everything else trying to get him under control. He was spitting blood everywhere, and all of a sudden he just went limp.”
Hardin believes her son was murdered, and his death was imminent from the start of the arrest. “I’m so damn hurt. I’m hurting so bad. I broke down not too long ago. And I needed that,” Hardin told NBC News. “I needed that because the anger, the boiling point of Louisiana and the corruption and my murder, the murder of my son, and how they had a good time doing it.”
The autopsy performed by the Union Parish Coroner’s Office did not identify a cause of death and noted missing information, CNN reports. Coroners cited “cocaine induced agitated delirium complicated by motor vehicle collision, physical struggle, inflicted head injury, and restraint,” as a possible cause but also said that Greene’s head injuries were “inconsistent with motor vehicle collision injury. These injuries are most consistent with multiple impact sites from a blunt object.”
Greene’s family alleges that in addition to leaving Greene without medical care for roughly nine minutes following his arrest, officers attempted a cover up, initially telling them that Greene died from the impact of a car accident. Without the footage the Associated Press accessed, Hardin’s legal team believes that there would have been no further investigation into Greene’s death.
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“We’ve seen a pattern in this country, an unfortunate pattern. When law enforcement alone are the only persons with access to critical evidence, like this kind of video, the process is to minimize the conduct, to keep it out of the eyes of the public and to protect the police officers,” said attorney Lee Merritt.
DeMoss was notified of his department’s intention to fire him and York completed a 50-hour suspension and returned to duty, NBC News reports. Neither has been arrested.
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