Graphic Bodycam Footage Shows Troopers Tasing, Punching, and Dragging Black Man, in Stark Contrast to Police Report

The Associated Press has obtained police body camera footage of the fatal 2019 arrest of 49-year-old Ronald Greene, a Black man. Louisiana State Police initially said Greene died after he crashed his car into a tree. Police had issued a brief statement admitting there had been a physical altercation between Greene and officers, and that Greene died en route to the hospital.

Greene was arrested near Monroe, LA after leading officers on a high-speed chase. The footage shows that he did not in fact crash his car.

In the footage, troopers can be seen tasing Greene – who at no point appears to be resisting once the car chase had stopped – and wrestling him to the ground. He is put in a chokehold and punched in the face. One trooper calls Greene a “stupid motherf*cker.”

During the incident, Greene says, “I’m scared” multiple times. Troopers also tased Greene who can be heard saying “I’m sorry,” as he wails in pain, bloodied. He also told troopers, “I’m your brother” in an apparent attempt to get them to stop.

“I hope this guy ain’t got f*cking AIDS,” one trooper says.

“Choked him and everything else trying to get him under control,” says Trooper Chris Hollingsworth at one point. “He was spitting blood everywhere, and all of a sudden he just went limp.”

Hollingsworth later died in a single-vehicle crash hours after learning he was to be fired over the Greene incident.

Greene was left handcuffed on his stomach for at least nine minutes, according to Andrew Scott, a use-of-force expert to whom the AP showed the footage. He noted that “officers are trained throughout the United States that once there’s a struggle of this nature and the individual’s handcuffed, that you need to push him off onto his side or get him in a sitting position so you can allow that breathing to be unimpeded by his own body weight.”

In addition, Trooper Kory York dragged Greene along the ground by ankle shackles even though he was not resisting. He was suspended 50 hours without pay for doing so, as well as deactivating his body camera.

“That was malicious, sadistic, completely unnecessary,” said Scott.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday it is opening a civil rights investigation into the matter.

Watch above via CNN and the AP.