Braintree Cop Grabs Suspect By Hair, Reprimanded Days After Promotion

BRAINTREE, MA — A Braintree police officer was reprimanded and ordered to take counseling after video from a police booking room showed he grabbed a woman by the hair and yelled in her face, according to records obtained through the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office.

Braintree police condemned the actions of officer Brian Eng in November 2021, which show him grabbing a "verbally and physically" abusive suspect by the hair and screaming in her face, according to a statement confirmed by video footage.

But he was reprimanded and ordered to counseling just days after he was promoted to lieutenant, records show.

The story was first reported by the Patriot Ledger, which filed a public records request through the District Attorney's Office. As part of that request, the DA's Office released copies of use-of-force reports, supervisory and counseling reports, and incident reports from the date of the incident.

What Happened

A Braintree police officer — not Eng — was transporting a woman to the department for booking just after midnight on Nov. 28, 2021.

In the incident reports from the night, the officer describes the woman as shouting profanities at her while she was transporting the suspect to the station, and also refusing to leave her police cruiser once they arrived. A second officer was needed to get the woman into the station, according to the report.

Eng enters the scene around the 19-minute mark in the video, as two Braintree police officers are trying to get the woman to take what appears to be a mugshot. On the video, the woman isn't looking up at the camera, resulting in two Braintree officers trying to tilt her head away from the floor and toward the camera on the wall.

In doing so, a Braintree officer states that the woman tries to bite her, and the woman says not to touch her chin. Things settle down for a few seconds, then Eng rushes into the room.

Eng grabs the back of the woman's head, lifts it up by her hair and says "you try to bite her again and I will put you through a wall."

Eng maintains a grip on the back of the woman's head, and shouts "do you understand me" three times in her face.

"You are f***ing going to jail," the woman said after Eng released her head.

Eng later reentered the room to help officers remove her earrings, and no physical altercation took place.

Three incident reports were filed by the officers involved. In Eng's, he writes that he "took control of her by the hair, pulled her head back, and yelled at her not to bite anyone."

The full video can be seen here. It contains explicit language.

Police Discipline

A supervisory action report was filed on Feb. 2, 2022, after police officials said they heard rumors, and after the administration reviewed video footage from the altercation.

That reports stats that Eng received a verbal reprimand and assigned counseling for his actions.

Though officials wrote that Eng was "unprofessional in how he dealt with [redacted]'s despicable behavior," officials said they believed it was "an isolated incident," adding that "this admin[istration] is comfortable that it is not likely to occur again."

Eng had been promoted to the position of lieutenant on Jan. 28, just days before he was reprimanded.

Officials showed him the video and said "he sunk in his chair, and was very uncomfortable and embarrassed by his reaction..."

Deputy Chief Timothy Cohoon, who wrote the supervisory action report, wrote this to summarize the department's findings:

"Brian Eng has never been formally disciplined in his employment. This administration believes that this incident was an isolated one, and not likely to occur again. He was verbally counselled and a Supervisory Action Form was created. If this behavior occurs again, he will be progressively disciplined."

Police Respond To Release Of The Video

Braintree police officials released a statement regarding the incident last week.

It is published in full below:

The Braintree Police Department unequivocally condemns the actions of the officer in this incident. We hold all of our officers to the highest standards and the behavior exhibited during the incident is not illustrative of the conduct we expect, and receive, from members of the Department. As soon as it was brought to our attention, action was taken immediately. Following a thorough investigation, the officer in question was disciplined and steps were taken to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again. Additionally, we have worked closely with the District Attorney’s office in their investigation and the results of both have been shared with the P.O.S.T. Commission.

While we regret this incident, our officer responded emotionally after the suspect repeatedly verbally and physically abused the booking officers and attempted to bite one of the officers twice. The 25-minute-long video depicts the suspect’s hostile, abusive and uncooperative nature after being arrested for suspicion of a violent crime. We as a department strive to respect the rights of every individual. At the same time, the safety of our officers is paramount. In this case, however, we cannot condone the actions taken by our officer. We take any incident or allegation against our officers seriously and found what took place in November of 2021 unacceptable.

This incident serves as an important reminder that police officers, while rightly held to a high standard of professional conduct, are still human. With that, it is incumbent on us to make sure that they have access to necessary support services and the time available to take advantage of those resources. This is especially important given the often unpredictable, and far too often violent, nature of their work. To that end, we have worked directly with Mayor Kokoros to provide our officers with access to peer support and mental health programs and will continue to do so through our robust Peer Support Unit, the town wide Employee Assistance Program, Veteran Services Office and other law enforcement support programs.

Since this incident the following measures have been taken:

1. The officer was disciplined.
2. The officer was sent for 40 hours of retraining, to include de-escalation training.
3. A staff meeting was called to show the video to all Braintree Police Supervisors and to emphasize de-escalation in potentially volatile and violent situations.
4. All Braintree Police Officers were briefed on the incident.
5. Whenever video is available in a Use of Force incident, it will be reviewed regardless of the level of force used.
6. The suspect in question was released on bond and both she and her attorney are in possession of copies of this video.