Mayor: Officers in taped beating will be fired
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Four Philadelphia police officers will be fired, two others will be disciplined and a supervising sergeant will be demoted because of the violent beating of three suspects caught after a shooting, the city’s mayor and police commissioner said Monday.
On May 5, a television news helicopter captured footage of more than a dozen predominantly white police officers pulling three African-American men out of a car after a pursuit.
The video footage shows the officers kicking, punching and striking the suspects with batons, while the men lie restrained on the ground.
Two of the men were struck at least 20 times each. Watch the officers pummel the men
The video kind of speaks for itself, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told WTXF-TV’s Good Day Philadelphia on May 6.
Ramsey and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter have said the beatings were inexcusable but had nothing to do with race.
Police identified the three suspects as Dwayne Dyches, 24; Brian Hall, 23; and Pete Hopkins, 19. All were charged with several felonies, including aggravated assault.
The suspects were believed to have been involved in a triple shooting at a street corner, Ramsey said. Of the 19 officers on the scene when the suspects were apprehended, eight had physical contact with them. Upon review, the actions of only two of those eight were deemed within appropriate limits, according to the commissioner.
The other six will be disciplined or dismissed. Although the supervising sergeant on the scene did not have physical contact with any of the suspects, he is being demoted for his failure to intervene or subdue his subordinates, Ramsey said. See the community reaction to the case
The district attorney’s office and the FBI will continue their investigations of the incident, Ramsey said. He also said that an outside group, the Police Executive Research Forum, has been contracted to further review the department’s policies and procedures.
Lemoia Dyches, the mother of one of the suspects, told CNN that she was unable to see her son after his arrest. They wouldn’t even permit his attorney to see him, she said. It strikes me as strange.
The police commissioner initially said that officers had seen the suspects fire shots, injuring three people on a street corner. Three suspects fled the scene in a vehicle, and a fourth — the shooter — escaped on foot, Ramsey originally said.
However, media reports this weekend indicate police have changed their account; they now allege Hopkins was the shooter.
Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross, in charge of field operations, told The Philadelphia Inquirer there was confusion during the investigation over whether the gunman fled or returned to the vehicle.
We certainly believe based on police witness accounts that four people drive up, Ross told the newspaper. Then three people get back in the car and drive off.
The gunman, Ross said, got back in the car. Police told the Inquirer they are still seeking a fourth suspect.
Ramsey said the police force has been under stress since Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski was shot and killed with an assault rifle May 3 while responding to a bank robbery. One suspect in that shooting was killed by police in the confrontation, and another has been apprehended. A third suspect is at large.
