A Georgia police officer was fired after body camera footage showed him striking a fleeing suspect with his car, authorities said Saturday.
Athens-Clarke police spokesman Epifanio Rodriguez said state authorities were determining if criminal charges should be brought against the officer, Taylor Saulters.
“This was not the kind of conduct we would expect from an Athens-Clarke County police officer,” Rodriguez told a local newspaper, The Athens Banner-Herald.
Saulters, who was fired for violating departmental policy, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The footage, which the department posted on Facebook, showed Saulters racing down a two-lane street on Friday night in Athens.
The officer was chasing Timmy Patmon, who was running on a sidewalk next to Saulters and was wanted for a felony probation violation, police said in a statement.
The footage shows Saulters swerve towards Patmon, who then darts across the street behind the officer’s cruiser. Patmon runs in front of the car and Saulters drives into him, knocking him onto the hood, then onto the street.
As Saulters and a second officer arrested Patmon, people on the street could be heard yelling at them.
“Why you hit that man with that car like that?” one person says.
Patmon, who suffered scrapes and bruises, was taken into a nearby hospital and later charged with obstructing an officer and violating his probation, police said.