An Alabama police officer is on leave after a video posted on social media showed her cursing at and using a stun gun on a man who was handcuffed and crying.
The video begins with a handcuffed man lying in the street as an officer with the Reform Police Department tells him to stand up. The officer then walks the man over to a car, the footage shows.
“Stay still,” the officer says as she pushes him against the hood of the car and holds her stun gun to his back.
“I ain’t doing s—, bro,” the man responds. “I got a gun right there.”
As the officer removes the gun from the man’s pants, she laughs and says, “oh yeah!”
“What you saying ‘oh, yeah’ for?” the man asks.
The officer responds by using her stun gun on the man, the video shows. “Shut the f— up,” she says.
The man starts crying. “OK, OK, OK,” he repeats. “Oh my God.”
“You want it again?” the officer asks as the man continues to cry. “Shut the f— up. You was big and bad, shut your b—- a– up.”
The video then ends. It’s unclear what happened before or after the 45-second clip posted to Facebook, and the Reform Police Department has shared very little information about the Dec. 2 incident.
In a brief statement, police Chief Richard Black and Reform Mayor Melody Davis said they were aware of the video, and the department is “in the process of turning over all materials related to this arrest to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation.”
“In accordance with City Policy, the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is conducted,” the statement said.
Further questions about the incident were directed to the State Bureau of Investigation.
NBC affiliate WVTM of Birmingham, Alabama, identified the man as Micah Washington, 24, of Tuscaloosa. His girlfriend, Jalexis Rice, said the officer pulled up as Washington and two other people were changing a tire on their car.
Rice said the video made her upset.
“When I seen it, I couldn’t do nothing but cry,” she told the news station. “I couldn’t do nothing but cry.”
Online jail records show that Washington was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental operations, possession of marijuana, drug trafficking, and an ex-felon being in possession of a firearm. He is being held at the Pickens County jail on a $505,000 bond, according to jail records.
On Monday night, Washington’s loved ones and members of the community gathered near the city hall to protest the arrest and demand accountability, according to WVTM.
Black and Davis said they have requested a thorough investigation into the incident.
