By Police1 Staff
DETROIT — A Detroit officer is under criminal investigation after cellphone footage captured an incident between him and a combative woman at a hospital.
On Thursday, Detroit Chief James Craig announced that the 18-year veteran officer, who hasn’t been identified, was suspended after the video emerged, ABC News reported. The video appears to show an officer punching a woman after she turned her back on him and attempted to retreat.
The incident happened on Wednesday after police received a call about a “lewd and lascivious” act in progress. The officers arrived and encountered the woman, who was completely nude and appeared to be in a “mental crisis,” Craig said.
Police then covered her in a robe and transported her to a hospital. Craig said things began to take a turn after the woman took off the robe at the hospital.
The chief said body-cam footage, which hasn’t been released, tells “a little bit of a different story” from the cellphone video, which shows the officer striking the woman in the head and body.
“Certainly the suspect, in this case, became very agitated,” Craig said. “She was threatening, clenched fists. She spat on several of the hospital employees. In addition to that, a member of the security staff was bitten twice and sustained injury.”
Craig said that at some point the woman, who also hasn’t been identified, tried to bite the officer.
“So as he was trying to calm her down, at some point, the officer began to strike her because she wasn’t responding, she was not compliant,” Craig said.
The chief did note that there were points in the video “where the suspect had turned her back but the officer continued to punch. It was at that point we had grave concerns for the officer’s actions...”
He also said he was concerned that the officer didn’t handcuff the woman, which he said isn’t consistent with department training.
“We know from our training and experience that anytime we transport someone, particularly if they’re suffering from mental illness, for their safety, for the officers’ safety and for the community’s safety that we handcuff,” Craig said.
The officer has been placed on administrative leave while the Wayne County District Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation.
“At this point, I can’t tell you why the officer didn’t opt for using a TASER, why he didn’t wait for backup,” Craig said. “Those are the things that we’ll be determining throughout this investigation.”