Georgia’s police department has said on Monday that an officer has been fired after a video surfaced on social media showing him pinning a black man, Roderick Walker, to the floor and brutally punching him in the face.
According to the local media reports, Walker was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by police officers for an alleged broken rear light. The police officer at the scene also tried to arrest him following an altercation.
The viral video on social media shows that Walker is pinned by two white police deputies, and one of them keeps punching him right in the face. Meanwhile, the Clayton County’s Sheriff officer said in a statement that the deputy who struck the black man repeatedly had been fired from the department over excessive use of force.
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The statement further added that an investigation has also been turned over to the district attorney’s office. Walker’s incident took place on Friday near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It came amid the rising tensions and civil rest in the country complemented with mass anti-racism protests.
Shean Williams, the lawyer of Roderick Walker, said that when the police pulled him over, he was a passenger in a car with his girlfriend, his stepson, and the couple’s five-year-old son. When asked about identity, Walker became upset because he was not driving the car, his lawyer said.
According to Walker’s lawyer’s statement to a local news channel, he informed the officers that he did not have any ID on him because he did not need it since Walker was not driving the car. Williams added “When they didn’t like his question, they then demanded that he get out of a vehicle that he wasn’t driving. It escalates to him being beaten on the ground, being tased, and almost dying. And they take him to jail.”
The footage suggests that as the officers try to arrest him, Walker’s girlfriend screams, and are son yells,” daddy,” meanwhile, one of the police says Walker bit him. During the arrest, he also lost his consciousness at least twice, Williams claimed.
Moreover, the photos of Walker taken after the arrest show a swollen left eye. Currently, he is charged with two counts of battery and two counts of obstructing officers. Meanwhile, his family and activists are pressing on releasing him from prison.
In recent months, America is grappled with the treatment of the black community at the hands of law enforcement agencies, as well as wider questions about the systematic racism in the country. In May, following the death of an unarmed African American, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, police custody the debates about the racism and calls for police reforms in the country.
