A Colorado police officer has been arrested on felony charges after a video showed him using his pistol to beat a man he was attempting to arrest, choking him and threatening to kill him, and a second officer was also arrested after authorities say she failed to stop her colleague as required by a new police accountability law.Body camera footage was shown Tuesday at a news conference of the Friday incident that happened in the Denver suburb of Aurora, whose police department has been plagued by numerous police misconduct cases in recent years including the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.
The man repeatedly says “You’re killing me, bro," as Aurora police Officer John Haubert holds him down and strikes him, the video shows.
“If you move, I will shoot you,” Haubert says. The officer says repeatedly “Stop fighting,” as the man cries and gasps for air.
Video shows Haubert yelling at the man to roll over on his stomach and show his hands to which the man complies.
“I need water,” the man cries as the body camera footage comes to an end.
Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson called the arrest a “very despicable act” at the press conference.
“This video will shock your conscience. It is very disturbing,” said Wilson, who took over the department last year. "We’re disgusted. We’re angry. This is not police work. We don’t train this.”
Haubert is under investigation over possible attempted first-degree assault, second-degree assault and felony menacing in connection with the Friday incident, according to arrest warrant affidavits written by an Aurora police detective and obtained by The Denver Post.
Officer Francine Martinez faces charges over allegedly not intervening to try to stop Haubert’s purported use of force, the documents say. A new Colorado police accountability law requires law enforcement to intervene when they witness abuses of force.
Both officers have turned themselves in. It wasn't immediately known if they had attorneys.
Haubert and Martinez were dispatched Friday afternoon to investigate a trespassing report, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The officers encountered three people who had outstanding felony warrants and tried to arrest them. Two ran way during the incident and have not been arrested as of Tuesday, Wilson said.
The video shows Haubert draw his pistol and point it at the third suspect, who did not resist.
Wilson referred to the video where the man can be heard saying he didn’t have a warrant. “We don’t believe he knew that he actually had an existing warrant. It sounds like it may have come out of a probation violation,” she said.
Haubert allegedly grabbed the back of the man's neck, pressed his gun against the man’s head, then struck the man's head with his pistol at least seven times while ordering him to lie on his stomach, the documents say.
Police body camera footage released Tuesday shows the the man bleeding from his head with a large golf-ball sized lump on his left temple as he struggles on the ground and cries for help.
He did not suffer serious bodily injury but he did sustain welts and an abrasion on his head that required six stitches, police said.
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