Photo: Getty Images
Two Michigan police officers have been put on leave after video showed one cop kicking a Black man in the head during what his attorney described as a "gang-style" arrest, the Associated Press reports.
Garry Young, 36, was accused of kneeing a woman in the face and choking a minor during his February 25 arrest by the Sterling Heights Police Department.
Video released earlier this month shows officers approaching Young in his vehicle at the home of the alleged victims. Young allegedly failed to comply with the officers' orders and drove away, prompting a high-speed police chase. The pursuit ended when Young's vehicle crashed.
In the video, Young exited the vehicle before officers and a police dog swarmed him. The dog repeatedly bit Young and officers struck him multiple times, sometimes in the head. Young was tased after officers asked him several times to put his hands behind his back.
Video also shows Young kicking an officer in the head. Officers later hit and kicked Young in the head before he was handcuffed.
According to police, Young's blood alcohol level was double the legal limit and he sustained “minor injuries during the arrest."
Young's attorney, Arnold Reed, however, said he suffered injuries throughout his "entire body." Reed claimed the officers used excessive force against Young.
“There are going to be people who don’t do what you tell them to do when you want them to do it or how you want them to do it. It doesn’t justify what we saw on that tape. ... It looked like Roman gladiators in the Coliseum killing prey, gang-style,” Reed told The Associated Press. “There’s a difference between apprehension of somebody and using excessive force. And what you see in that video is well beyond the use of excessive force. That was a gang-style beating. That’s exactly what it was, and these officers need to be dealt with to the full extent of the law."
Young is facing charges related to domestic violence as well as fleeing police, assaulting/resisting police, and operating with his license suspended.
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