Two Arkansas sheriff’s deputies and a local police officer were filmed brutalizing a man accused of threatening a gas station clerk, according to the Arkansas State Police.
Two deputies from the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office have been suspended and an officer from the Mulberry Police Department has been placed on administrative leave, their respective agencies confirmed Sunday.
Video posted on TikTok shows the three officers kneeling on the man, who is lying on the cement, and punching him repeatedly in the head.
The officers can be heard ordering a woman, who is not seen on camera, to “back the f--k up” and get back in the car.
The Arkansas State Police identified the man as 27-year-old Randall Worcester, who was hospitalized for treatment and then jailed.
He allegedly threatened a clerk at an Alma gas station shortly before 11 a.m., then rode his bike to a Kountry Xpress in Mulberry, where the officers spotted him, Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante told ABC 40.
Worcester initially cooperated with the officers, Damante said, but then “turned violent.”
The sheriff claimed that one of the deputies sustained a minor head injury.
Worcester has been charged with second-degree battery, resisting arrest, refusal to submit, possessing an instrument of crime, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, terroristic threatening and second-degree assault.
He is being held on a $15,000 bond, according to online jail records.
The Arkansas State Police has opened an investigation “limited to the use of physical force by the deputies and police officer.” The results will then be turned over to the Crawford County prosecuting attorney, who will determine whether the use of force was justified.
“I hold all my employees accountable for their actions and will take appropriate measures in this matter,” Damante said in a statement online.
The officers have not been publicly identified.
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