Officer placed on leave after using stun gun on handcuffed Alabama man
Video shared widely across social media captures the incident between Micah Washington, a Black man, and the unidentified white female officer.
A white female police officer in Alabama is under investigation after video showed her tasing Micah Washington, a Black man, while he was handcuffed, according to AL.com.
The incident took place Saturday in Reform, Alabama. The brief video clip, which has been shared widely across social media and on area newscasts, shows the unnamed officer bringing a handcuffed man, identified by WVTM 13 News as Micah Washington, 24, to her car.
After putting Washington on the hood of her vehicle, she held a stun gun against his back and told him to “stay still.” Washington responded, saying, “’I ain’t doing s–t, bro. I got a gun right there. I’m not doing nothin’,” his hands still cuffed behind him.
The officer then says, “Oh yeah,” before pulling the trigger on the stun gun against Washington’s back as he begins to talk again. She curses at him and asks if he wants it again.
“She tased him in the back, and she was holding it. She was just holding it there until he started crying,” Jalexis Rice, Washington’s girlfriend, told WVTM. Rice noted that the officer approached them when they were on the side of the road changing a tire.
Birmingham-based ABC 3340 reported the video was recorded by Washington’s younger brother, Shikeem.
WVTM reported that the Pickens County sheriff’s office said Washington was subsequently charged with resisting arrest, marijuana possession, drug trafficking, obstructing governmental operations and possessing a firearm as an ex-felon. He’s booked in the Pickens County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
In a statement sent to WVTM, Reform Mayor Melody Davis and Police Chief Richard Black said the involved officer is on administrative leave.
“The Reform police department is aware of video circulating involving a citizen’s arrest on December 2, 2023. The department is in the process of turning over all materials related to this arrest to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation and has requested an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest,” the statement said, according to ABC 3340. “In accordance with city policy, the police officer has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is conducted.”
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