Arkansas police officer fired after video captures him beating a detainee in the back of a patrol car
By Melissa Alonso and Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN
(CNN) — The Jonesboro Police Department in Arkansas has terminated an officer after he was seen on video physically assaulting a detainee in the back of a patrol vehicle.
On Friday, the department “was informed of a complaint about an incident involving a JPD officer that occurred the previous evening,” the department said in a post on Facebook.
“The serious nature of the complaint necessitated prompt action. Following an internal review of the incident, it was determined that the officer involved, Joseph Harris, should be terminated effective immediately,” the police post said.
The department said it was “working through this as quickly as possible,” and posted video of the incident on its YouTube channel.
In the video, the detainee appears to be handcuffed in the back of a police car, wearing a hospital gown. He appears to be out of breath and panicked.
He can be heard telling officers that he swallowed a bag of fentanyl the day prior and is concerned that he will die if he’s not taken back to the hospital.
“I swear to God, on my daughter’s life I’ve got f**king fentanyl inside of me, and they’re trying to send me back to the jail where they’re going to f**king let me die,” he says.
The man appears to get agitated, as he repeatedly tells officers that he has fentanyl inside of him and asks at one point, “Are ya’ll trying to kill me?”
An officer can be heard responding, “No.”
When the detainee asks the officers if they care or believe him, an officer can be heard saying, “Not really, no.”
The man is then seen with the seatbelt wrapped around his neck, seemingly attempting to strangle himself in the moving vehicle.
The car stops, and an officer opens the door and begins punching and elbowing the man in the head repeatedly before removing the seatbelt from around the man’s neck and slamming the door closed on his head.
The detainee is initially unresponsive in the video when another officer asks him twice if he’s alright.
Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott told CNN affiliate KAIT he has communicated with the FBI, prompting the bureau’s Little Rock field office to open a case. Elliott also forwarded information on the incident to the Greene County prosecutor, he told the outlet.
CNN has reached out to the Greene County prosecutor’s office for comment.
Harris received a 20-hour suspension without pay and further training from the police department about two years ago for excessive force, Sally Smith, a public information officer with the Jonesboro Police Department, told CNN. He has also been named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in June, Smith confirmed.
CNN has made attempts to reach Harris and reached out to the police union for comment but has not yet heard back.
The firing comes amid renewed scrutiny on how departments respond to officer misconduct after body camera footage was released showing the deadly shooting of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman in Illinois who called 911 for help and was killed by a deputy in her own home.
The deputy, Sean Grayson, was fired by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder, but Massey’s family has questioned how Grayson was hired in the first place, given his troubled employment history.
At a community forum in Jonesboro Monday held by the local chapter of the NAACP, Elliott assured the crowd he has taken steps to ensure Harris would no longer work as a police officer anywhere, KAIT reported.
“There is a nationwide decertification. So, if he’s decertified in Arkansas it applies across the United States,” the chief said, according to the outlet.
Elliott also acknowledged the community’s trust had been broken and the entire police department will have to work toward rebuilding it, the affiliate said.
CNN’s Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.
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