A Mississippi Highway Patrol Officer has come under fire for putting a handcuffed black man into a chokehold and wrestling him into a ditch- after a video of the incident recently went viral.
Captured on Friday in McComb by a man named Packer Lewis, the viral video that features three black men having an altercation with the highway patrol officer sparked outrage over the officer’s conduct.
The video shows one of Lewis’ brothers, Eugene Lewis, standing in the street in handcuffs as Packer Lewis and another brother, Darius Lewis, yell that they are recording the incident. Suddenly, the officer grabs Eugene Lewis by the neck and pulls him across the street, tackling him to the ground. At one point, the officer appears to use his knee to pin him down.
Packer Lewis said the Mississippi officer became aggressive after he told the Lewis brothers to leave the scene. “He said y’all need to leave. It’s not y’all business. We said it’s our business because it’s our brother.”
After detaining Eugene Lewis in a police car, the officer then walked toward the other two brothers and pointed a weapon at one of them. After another officer arrived, Packer and Darius Lewis were then arrested.
As it stands, Lewis said his brother was pulled over for allegedly speeding and then was arrested for having an expired license.
In response to the uproar that the video caused online, Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety said, “The Mississippi Department of Public Safety was made aware of an incident involving a Mississippi Highway Patrolman conducting an arrest on a subject in McComb, MS. This incident is being reviewed internally by the Department of Public Safety. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is also conducting an inquiry.”
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