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Body Cam Footage Shows Police Officer Beating Handcuffed Man
A Florida police officer is being investigated after body cam footage showed him beating a suspect who was already detained.
ABC News reports that an internal investigation was opened against Broward County Sheriff Deputy Jorge Sobrino after he was seen punching David O’Connell and aggressively twisting his arm at a South Florida hospital in January.
Sobrino arrested the man at a Pompano Beach, Florida Walmart while responding to a domestic disturbance report. The man was arrested on charges of resisting without violence and taken to a local hospital for injuries he sustained during the arrest.
Body camera footage shows that that’s when a confrontation took place.
WPLG Local 10 obtained the recording;
“Hey, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here. I wanna sign off!” O’Connell is heard yelling in the video. “I wanna sign off!”
Sobrino then closes the door, and orders O’Connell, who had one hand cuffed to the hospital bed, to sit down — but he refused.
“Now you’re going to f—ing close the door and beat my a** again,” O’Connell is heard saying. “F— you! Now you think you’re all big now because you’re a f—ing cop?”
Officer Sabrino then throws the man’s legs on the bed, before punching him in the face and twisting his arm behind his back.
Broward County Mayor Mark Bogen said the officer’s conduct was “unacceptable” and called for his firing.
“I was the first to call for the firing of one of the officers involved in the beating of a Delucca Rolle, who put up no resistance. I want the same to happen here. I’m asking for the Sheriff to take immediate action,” Bogen said.
“There has to be a zero-tolerance policy for abuse and brutality. This is the second time in less than a week, where videotape shows a BSO deputy abusing his power. I am asking the State Attorney’s Office to open a criminal investigation into this as well.”