*The Sacramento Police Department has launched a criminal investigation into one of its officers who viciously beat an unarmed black man after stopping him for jaywalking.
Video of the beating – captured by bystander Naomi Montaie and posted to her Facebook page – went viral on Tuesday, April 11, and has since sparked national outrage.
The incident took place at 5:07 p.m. Monday, in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood, near the intersection of Cypress Street and Grand Avenue. The police department says the officer initially stopped the man, identified as Nandi Cain Jr., because he was jaywalking.
In the video, Cain can be seen speaking with the officer before removing his jacket and dropping it on the ground. Dashcam video shows Cain saying to the officer, “If you’re a real man, you can take your gun away and you can fight me like a real man.”
The officer then charges Cain, slams him to the pavement and starts beating him. In the video, Montaie and a passenger can be heard shouting, “Hey!! Why you beating him like that?”
Montaie continues filming the officer on top of Cain, punching him repeatedly. Eventually, a seond officer arrives, climbs on top of Cain and handcuffs him.
“Why’d you take him down like that, sir? He just got off work,” yells Montaie from her car as more backup arrives. In the end, there are seven officers surrounding Cain who lies, handcuffed in the street. Eventually, they put him in the back of a patrol car.
“He was bleeding at the mouth… that one cop, took him down and just started, bam, bam, bam,” says Montaie before the cell phone video ends.
Watch below:
Sacramento Police Department released a statement Tuesday, saying the officer, a two-year veteran of the force, had “attempted to detain a pedestrian for allegedly unlawfully crossing the street.” A verbal dispute reportedly ensued. “The pedestrian questioned the officer’s validity to stop him, at which time a violent encounter occurred between the officer and the pedestrian.”
The statement went on to admit that the officer’s actions “appeared to be outside of policy” and that he has been placed on administrative leave.
“We have a culture problem, and it’s not a problem that is just a Sacramento problem,” said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, addressing the beating on Wednesday. “It’s a national problem, and it largely frankly exists between law enforcement and young African Americans and males especially. And I think there’s a lot of work to do.”
In addition to the investigation, the police department also plans to review training procedures.
Watch dashcam video of the encounter in a report from ABC World News below:
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