Cop charged after bodycam footage shows ‘horrible use of force’
Virginia cop charged with assault after tasing pinned-down man
White police officer stuns unarmed black man and is charged with assault and battery
A Fairfax County, Va., police officer was “relieved of his duties” late Saturday and arrested on assault charges after he tased an incoherent man as other officers were trying to coax him into an ambulance, then kneeled on his back to cuff him as the man writhed and yelled, “I can’t breathe.”
The incident happened on Friday, amid massive nationwide protests against police brutality and racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
In Fairfax County, the white officer in question, Tyler Timberlake, is charged with three counts of assault and battery, reported WJLA-TV. He could face up to three years in jail.
In the video, which Fairfax County police showed at a Saturday press conference and posted on YouTube, the man, who is black, seems to be suffering from a medical issue. Officers can be heard trying to coax him into an ambulance, but he instead walks around in circles.
At one point an officer shoots him with the stun gun as the man is walking away. He falls, and the officer leans on his back with his knees, jams the stun gun into his shoulder, and holds it there, even though the man’s face is being ground into the asphalt. The man is yelling, and at one point says, “I can’t breathe.” Read More
