A video shared on social media appearing to show a man yanked out of his car, thrown onto the ground and then punched by an officer during a traffic stop has led to an internal investigation at the Louisville Metro Police Department in Kentucky.
The department said in a statement Monday that it was looking into three officers' use of force after two of them appeared in the video to be holding the man on the ground while another repeatedly struck him at a Kroger gas station in Louisville.
"LMPD is aware of the incident on Broadway this afternoon," police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said. "We are in the process of collecting all body camera footage available from officers who were present."
Mitchell declined to release the names of the involved officers due to the investigation.
"We have already begun a review of the incident, as we do in every case where force is used by officers," he said.
According to the Courier Journal, Jarrus Ransom, 32, was stopped by police because of dark-tinted windows on his SUV.
Officers said in an arrest report obtained by the new outlet that Ransom would not immediately get out of the car.
In the footage, posted on Facebook by a user with the name Tonniqua Wales, three officers are seen removing Ransom from his SUV. As two of them hold him face down on the street, a third appears to punch Ransom multiple times in his back.
Screams of "record that" are heard on the video, apparently by the woman filming. "Record that!"
One of the officers is also seen yanking at Ransom's sweatpants as handcuffs are placed on him.
The incident drew a crowd of bystanders, many of whom were seen in the video holding out their cellphones to record what was happening.
According to the Courier Journal, police said Ransom allegedly tried to run away and rammed one officer with his shoulder. They said a police search dog was brought over to the car to search for drugs because Ransom was allegedly acting "suspicious."
An officer wrote in the arrest report, according to the Courier Journal, that a can with soda in it was found in his vehicle and when the soda was poured on the ground three pills fell out. Ransom allegedly tried to destroy two of the pills on the ground, the report stated.
He faces charges of possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, resisting arrest, excessive window tinting and failure to wear a seat belt, the arrest report said. He was released Monday after posting bond and is due in court Wednesday.
The police department's Professional Standards Unit will handle the investigation, and look into whether any department policies were violated when arresting Ransom, police spokesman Mitchell told the Courier Journal.