Body camera footage shows a Louisiana state police officer brutally beating an unarmed Black man in May of 2019, according to the New York Times.
Aaron Larry Bowman was beaten at least 18 times with a flashlight as officers pinned him to the ground.
The horrifying footage which was first obtained and published by The Associated Press captures the assault and the verbal exchange between Aaron Larry Bowman and the officers.
“I’m not resisting! I’m not resisting!” Bowman screamed as he suffered from blow after blow.
"Fighting us ain't gonna help you bud," an officer says.
"I'm not fighting you," Bowman responds.
"They hit me in the head with a flashlight. I'm on dialysis, man, it hurt me. It hurt me. I don't have nothing,” Bowman said in the video.
As a result of the brutal assault, Bowman suffered “sustained multiple lacerations," that include "a cut to the top of his head, a fractured arm, and broken ribs amongst other ailments” according to court records.
The trooper, Jacob Brown, who was arrested in February on charges of aggravated second-degree battery and malfeasance in office in connection with the assault, according to an arrest warrant affidavit, defended the attack as “pain compliance.” Brown, who is facing criminal charges in two unrelated excessive-force cases, resigned one month later.
A Louisiana State Police spokeswoman said in an email on Wednesday that Brown’s body-camera footage of the incident was “intentionally mislabeled.”
“As the investigation continued, detectives concluded that Brown engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions and failed to report the use of force to his supervisors,” said the spokeswoman, Lt. Melissa Matey.
The footage of the body camera was just recently discovered.
"Prior to [the investigation into Brown], no one knew about the body camera footage," Keith Whiddon, one of Bowman's attorneys said. "When my office learned of it, we filed our motion to ask the state to turn it over, and the judge ordered it turned over in seven days."
According to the affidavit filed by the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office deputy, Bowman "began swinging his arms at me and screaming he did not do anything wrong. [Bowman] then struck me on top of the head with a closed fist."
Bowman disputes the officer’s account of the events in a civil suit and asserts that the published police report is fabricated.
The case remains open.
