PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police in Providence have released body camera footage from the violent arrest of a group of teenagers in July that led to the suspension of two officers.
The more than eight hours of footage released last week on the city’s YouTube page show at least two teenagers getting punched multiple times after they were arrested following a prolonged car chase through the city.
WPRI-TV reports one video shows an officer delivering several blows to a teen’s face while another officer holds the boy’s head and hands back.
Another video shows an officer punching one of the teens on the ground until he has to be restrained and pulled away from the boy, who can be heard moaning and crying, the station reports. One of the teens is showed later with a bloodied face and blood on the ground.
Officers Domingo Diaz and Mitchel Voyer were suspended with pay following the arrest and officials say they’re weighing criminal use of force charges.
Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré and Mayor Jorge Elorza last month called officers’ conduct “appalling.”
State Attorney General Peter Neronha said he authorized release of the videos because the investigation is substantially complete.
The teenagers have been charged with criminal offenses for the July 8 chase in a BMW convertible that police say lasted hours. Police say the chase
involved some of the teen passengers repeatedly pointing two BB gun rifles at bystanders and ended when the car crashed into a fire hydrant.
The teens names have not been released because they’re minors and the initial police report didn’t mention any use of force by officers.
Michael Imondi, president of the Providence police union, urged the public to reserve judgment on the officers until the investigation was complete.
“What will be lost in all this is the fact that three individuals made the conscious choice to buy weapons and use them to terrorize our city with a complete disregard for life and property, committing a number of serious crimes,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Black Lives Matter R.I. PAC said it plans to protest Friday.
“I don’t think that any of us can look at that video and see that a child is lifeless, on the ground, and being spit on, and feel like that is protecting people,” Harrison Tuttle, the group’s executive director, told WPRI-TV.
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