FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

Video Shows Michigan Cops Beating and Kicking a Handcuffed Suspect

The suspect, a parole absconder, was allegedly involved in an armed carjacking situation two hours earlier in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Park.
Photo via Corwin Deckard/Flickr

VICE News is closely watching policing in America. Check out the Officer Involved blog here.

Michigan authorities are investigating an incident involving two police who were filmed beating and kicking a carjacking suspect while the man lays handcuffed on the ground.

Andrew Jackson Jr., 51, was suspected of carjacking a woman and her daughter at gunpoint around 11am Monday in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Park, the Detroit News reported.

Advertisement

Two hours later, police from the multi-jurisdictional stolen car task force (ACTION) caught up with Jackson — who was on parole for armed robbery conspiracy charges and fleeing police in 2004 — in a driveway. The suspect exited the vehicle and fled on foot, leading police on a quarter-mile chase before he was detained.

Video of the arrest posted to Facebook shows two plainclothes cops then punching and kicking the suspect while he lays handcuffed on the ground. When Jackson calls for divine intervention, one officer cuffs him on the back of his head.

"Jesus? You're calling Jesus? You fucker! Don't you dare. Don't you fucking dare!" the officer said.

After the physical response is over, the officers give each other a fist bump. Minutes later in the video, police discover the suspect's handgun.

ACTION is comprised of officers from Grosse Pointe Park, Detroit, Warren, Harper Woods, and Highland Park and is paid for by a Grosse Pointe Park police grant. The state investigation will determine which police agencies were involved in the incident.

Grosse Pointe Park Public Safety Director David Hiller said his initial investigation indicated the officers' actions were "proper," claiming that police feared for their lives because Jackson was reaching for his weapon.

"We're looking at it, and we believe the officers' actions were proper," Hiller said. "In effecting the arrest, [the officers] had to kick to get his arms free because he was going for his gun, which was in his waistband.

"This subject was a parole absconder wanted for an armed robbery in Detroit. He was armed with a handgun," Hiller said.

Jackson faces an additional 60 months for violating the terms of his parole.

Photo via Flickr