After video footage made its way to social media showing a man getting beat by three Arkansas law enforcement officers, this has resulted in their suspensions, and an active investigation will be conducted.
The officers were responding to a call that a man making threats outside a store Sunday in Mulberry, authorities said.
Arkansas State Police are investigating the use of force and identified the man who was being arrested as Randal Worcester, 27, of South Carolina. Federal authorities have begun a separate civil rights investigation into the incident.
“The FBI and the Arkansas State Police will collect all available evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough, and impartial manner,” the Justice Department said in a statement Monday. “The federal investigation is separate and independent from the ongoing state investigation.”
“Two deputies and an officer have been suspended with pay, Col. Bill Bryant said Monday. They were identified as Crawford County sheriff’s deputies Zack King and Levi White and Mulberry police officer Thell Riddle, the sheriff’s office said.”
The suspect, Worcester, was taken to a local hospital to be examined and treated before being booked at the Crawford County Jail in Van Buren, state police said.
“What he went through yesterday was horrific,” Powell said. He says he hopes to have the complaints dismissed against Worcester.
He was jailed on complaints of second-degree burglary, resisting arrest, refusal to submit, possessing an instrument of crime, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, terroristic threatening, and second-degree assault, according to Arkansas State Police. A Crawford County Prosecuting Attorney’s office spokeswoman said no charges have been filed Monday against Worcester.
“This office recognizes the horrific nature of the activity portrayed by the video,” the attorney’s office said in a statement. “Despite the activity that is shown in the video, these officers are presumed innocent at this time.”
A jailer said that Worcester was released Monday afternoon from the Crawford County Jail in Van Buren after posting a $15,000 bond.
One of Worcester’s attorneys, David Powell, said Worcester is in “good spirits” despite injuries to his head, elbows, and knees after Sunday’s incident.