Iran Press/America: The attack happened on 26 March when Grand Rapids officers pulled over 25-year-old Diabate Hood, who then refused to step out of his car. There were two other men in the vehicle with Hood, police said.
Hood reportedly attempted to flee by jumping into the passenger seat. The video shows three officers holding him down and one punching him several times in the face. Officers kept shouting “Stop resisting.”
The bodycam footage comes days after a jury found the Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd. In remarks reminiscent of Floyd’s last words, Hood could also be heard yelling: “I can’t breathe.”
According to WOOD-TV, Michigan attorney Tyrone Bynum is taking legal action against the three Grand Rapids Police Department officers for racially profiling two black men in the car including Hood and one Latino man.
He told the media: “You don’t have to listen to me, look at the video.”
The video that was posted on social media shows several officers approaching a Chevrolet Sedan and asking one of the passengers to step out for throwing rubbish out of the window.
The Grand Rapids police chief, Eric Payne, has said the traffic stop was part of its Operation Safe Neighbourhoods program, which he said he had timely and accurate intelligence to justify. Payne said the operation was in response to an increase in the crime in the area recently.
He said: “This is the police work that I expect from my personnel.”
The death of George Floyd, an African-American man, occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020. It caused a lot of unrest in American cities.
George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. The video of Floyd pleading with the officer, who pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes until Floyd stopped moving, sparked widespread outrage and mass protests across the country and other parts of the world.
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