East Cleveland Police forceful arrest captured on video; police say no excessive force used

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — Video taken by a witness on East 152nd Avenue in East Cleveland Wednesday afternoon is making the rounds on social media.

The video begins with what seems to be East Cleveland cops chasing a person on a dust bike. After the person falls, he’s seen making an attempt to get again up and on his bike, however then you’ll be able to see a police cruiser knock the bike and the person again down.

The officer will get out of his automotive and, together with two different officers, seems to hit the person a number of occasions for round 7 seconds.

Wednesday night, East Cleveland Police posted the video on Fb and launched the physique digital camera footage and defended the officers and their actions.

Click on right here to observe it.

Information 5 spoke with East Cleveland Police Chief Scott Gardner after viewers despatched the video to the newsroom. He mentioned he has seen the video circulating social media however mentioned he additionally combed by physique digital camera footage, which he mentioned paints a special situation.

“Once you’re charged to make an arrest, it doesn’t look nice, however these are the strategies we’re skilled in, and I didn’t observe any strategies that police haven’t been skilled in,” he mentioned. “It doesn’t seem that any sort of use of power was abused on this case, initially, that I’m seeing.”

Gardner mentioned police tried to drag the person over a number of occasions for reckless driving and commenced pursuing him when he didn’t comply. He mentioned the cruiser you can see hitting the person’s bike is a police method used to cease a topic from fleeing.

“He was on grass. The officers felt it was finest, within the second, to make use of that method as a result of, clearly, if it’s going to push the bike down — it’s going to be push it down on the grass,” he mentioned. “It’s used to primarily maneuver the motorbike so it grew to become disabled, and that’s primarily what occurred.”

He mentioned the witness video doesn’t present the person making an attempt to run from police after the cruiser strikes him and he mentioned that’s why police started placing the person, one other police method.

“Your fingers are balled and also you’re primarily making a strike, however you’re doing it to strategic places. You’re doing it to main muscle teams in try to realize management to a celebration’s arms or legs,” mentioned Gardner.

Within the division’s bodycam footage, you can’t see the officers placing the person, and it goes to black, however Gardner mentioned that’s as a result of the digital camera was lined as a result of he was on prime of the person and mentioned there was completely no enhancing or redacting.

He additionally mentioned that the person was not damage and officers requested him the second he was arrested if he was okay.

“Officers clearly requested him, ‘Hey are you okay? Do you want medical consideration?’, and he indicated he didn’t,” mentioned Gardner.

Information 5 took the movies to third-party safety and policing knowledgeable Tim Dimoff. He mentioned it seems that police used correct coaching when arresting the person within the video.

“That’s not unusual so as to acquire management of a topic, and in the event you discover, once they did lastly get management, they stopped. They didn’t proceed to strike. They didn’t strike his neck or head space. And instantly once they received the cuffs on him, they stopped,” he mentioned.

The person faces a number of costs, together with fleeing and eluding, reckless operation, and the report signifies the grime bike was reported stolen.

Your complete incident, like every other use of power incident, can be below an inner affairs investigation.