Watch: Video Shows Police Kicking, Punching Cuffed Suspect

A video posted on Facebook that appears to show police officers in Grosse Pointe Park punching and kicking a handcuffed suspect and admonishing him for “calling Jesus” has been shared nearly 5,000 times.

Emma Craig of Detroit posted the 9-minute, 30-second video on her personal page Apparently shot on Monday, it shows two officers beating a man who is face-down in the snow and whose hands are cuffed behind him. The video appears to show one officer swinging at the suspect seven times while another kicks the suspect twice.

At about the 30-second mark, the suspect utters “Jesus.”

“What did you say?” one of the officers reported. “Jesus? You’re calling Jesus? You (expletive)! Don’t you dare. Don’t you (expletive) dare!”

It’s not clear who shot the video posted on Craig’s page, but a woman can be heard saying: “This man is handcuffed and the police is beating him while his hands is cuffed behind him.”

The Grosse Pointe Park Police Department is investigating the incident, The Detroit News reports. The officers shown were from a multijurisdictional task force called ACTION hat includes officers from Detroit, Grosse Pointe Park, Harper Woods and Highland Park, according to a news release.

Grosse Pointe Park Police Chief David Hiller defended the officers’ actions as “proper,” the Detroit Free Press reports. The suspect, a parole absconder who was wanted in connection with the armed robbery and carjacking of a mother and two children in Detroit Monday, is a “serious felon,” he said.

“We’re looking at it, and we believe the officers actions were proper,” Hiller said in an interview with The Detroit News. “In affecting the arrest, they had to kick to get his arms free because he was going for his gun, which was in his waistband.”

Related:

• Grosse Pointe Park Police Investigate Alleged Harassment

The incident occurs almost a year after Grosse Pointe Park Police Department signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Justice and the state of Michigan to develop additional racial profile training to its officers.

State and federal officials stepped in after a video showing Grosse Pointe Park police allegedly mocking a disabled African-American man, who they reportedly made sing and dance. The police-shot video was distributed to family and friends under the tagline: “Got to love the coloreds.”

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