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An Alabama police officer has been placed on administrative leave after using a stun gun on a handcuffed man. According to WVTM, the incident occurred on December 2 during a traffic stop.
According to the outlet, a viral video has circulated showing an unidentified female cop engaged in a traffic stop with a 24-year-old man named Micah Washington. The officer reportedly works at the Reform Police Department.
Jalexis Rice, Washington’s girlfriend, explained to reporters that the incident unfolded after Washington and “two others” stopped to change a “tire of the car they were driving.”
Rice says that’s when the unnamed officer arrived and put Washington into handcuffs. The video shows the officer then lifting Washington from the ground and ordering him to lay the upper portion of his body on the hood of her police car.
The officer begins to go through Washington’s pockets as she seemingly tells him to “shush.”
“I’m not doing s**t, bro,” Washington tells the officer. “I got a gun right there; I’m not doing nothing.”
The officer then emphatically yells, “Oh yeah!” while removing a black object from one of Washington’s pockets.
“I’m saying, what you saying, ‘Oh yeah’ for?” Washington asks the officer.
The woman presses her stun gun into the middle of Washington’s back, using it for a prolonged time.
Washington begins to cry in pain as the officer asks him, “Do you want it again?”
The woman then proceeds to tell him to “Shut the f**k up.”
“She tased him in the back, and she was holding it. She was just holding it there until he started crying,” Rice, who filmed the incident, reportedly told reporters at a protest on Monday, December 4. “When I seen it, I couldn’t do nothing but cry; I couldn’t do nothing but cry.”
According to WVTM, Washington was arrested and charged with “obstructing governmental operations, resisting arrest,” and marijuana possession. Additionally, the 24-year-old was also hit with a drug trafficking charge and “possessing a firearm as an ex-felon.”
TMZ reports that District Attorney Andy Hamlin has alleged that Washington was trafficking fentanyl.
AL.com adds that Washington is being held in Pickens County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
Furthermore, the outlet has shared a statement from Reform Police Chief Richard Black and the Mayor of Reform, Alabama, Melody Davis. According to the officials, the department is investigating the traffic stop and subsequent arrest.
Additionally, the statement revealed that the officer has been placed on “administrative leave while the investigation is conducted.”
“The Reform Police Department is aware of a video circulating involving a citizen’s arrest on December 2. The department is in the process of turning over all materials related to this arrest to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation and has requested a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest. In accordance with City Policy, the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is conducted,” the statement reads, per TMZ.
According to WVTM, community members gathered near Reform City Hall on Monday night to protest Washington’s arrest. Multimedia journalist Austin Pratt reports that many were “appalled by the actions that took place.”
Additionally, the protestors advocated for Washington’s release.
