COLUMBUS: An officer used “unreasonable” force that wasn’t part of his training when subduing a restrained suspect in a way that appeared to show him kicking the suspect in the head, police in Ohio said Wednesday.
The Columbus Division of Police announced the finding in the case of an April 8 arrest that followed an investigation into reports of a man with a gun who had threatened to shoot up a house and everyone inside. Police said shots were fired during the confrontation and an officer was elbowed.
A video taken that day shows a Columbus officer restraining a prone man and preparing to handcuff him when a second officer arrives and appears to kick him in the head.
Police have said the second officer, identified as Zachary Rosen, reported his action under standard police procedure for when force is used.
“Are you serious, I’ve got cuffs on, sir,” suspect Demarko Anderson is heard on the video, according to a review of the incident by Columbus Deputy Chief Thomas Quinlan released Wednesday.
“This statement was recorded contemporaneously with the video capturing Mr. Anderson’s head, raised high in the air, smashing into the pavement, and bouncing back up high in the air as the officer used force, indicative of a strike to the head,” Quinlan’s review said.
In the review, obtained by the Associated Press through a records request, Quinlan also questions officer Zachary Rosen’s justification of using force because he believed Anderson was still armed.
Fear made no sense given that Anderson wasn’t searched for several minutes after the kick, the review said.
Rosen also continued to use profanity long after it could be considered acceptable, indicating he was “operating off adrenalin.” Rosen “continues to engage Mr. Anderson potentially escalating the situation, not de-escalating the situation,” the review said.
“The strike/stomp was an untrained technique and was found to be unreasonable,” police said in a prepared statement.
The case goes next to a police discipline committee.
Jason Pappas, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter representing Rosen, said Rosen was justified because of the circumstances that day.